33 Facts About Sepp Blatter

Joseph "Sepp" Blatter was born on Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936 and is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015.

Sepp Blatter has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of the FIFA corruption case made public that year, and will remain banned until 2027.

From a background in business, public relations, and sports administration, Blatter became general secretary of FIFA in 1981 and was then elected president at the 51st FIFA Congress on 8 June 1998, succeeding Joao Havelange, who had headed the organization since 1974.

On 2 June 2015, six days after the United States government indicted several current and former FIFA officials and sports marketing companies for bribery and money laundering, Sepp Blatter announced that he would call for elections to choose a new president of FIFA and that he would not stand in these elections, but he said he would remain in his position until an extraordinary FIFA Congress could be held for his successor to be elected.

Sepp Blatter was born in Visp in the Swiss canton of Valais with the given name of Josef.

Sepp Blatter studied in Saint Maurice, before getting a degree in business and economics from the University of Lausanne in 1959.

Sepp Blatter has had a long and varied career, including posts such as head of public relations for the tourist board of his native canton, as well as general secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation.

From 1975 onwards, Sepp Blatter worked at FIFA, first as technical director, then general secretary, before his election as FIFA president in 1998.

Sepp Blatter was re-elected as head of FIFA in 2002, and was re-elected unopposed for another four years on 31 May 2007, even though only 66 of 207 FIFA members nominated him.

Sepp Blatter's tenure saw controversy over allegations of financial mismanagement and the acceptance of bribes resulting in Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid.

Sepp Blatter has attracted criticism from the media, senior football figures and players, due to controversial statements.

Sepp Blatter drew criticism at the 2014 FIFA World Cup seeding, when he interrupted a "one-minute silence" for former South-African president Nelson Mandela, who died the day before, after eleven seconds.

Sepp Blatter has been publicly heckled, at the World Cup in Seoul and the Confederations Cup in Frankfurt, both in 2002 and 2005, in his home town of Visp in 2011, at the 2012 Women's Olympic Football Final Medal Ceremony, and at the opening of Confederations Cup match in 2013.

Sepp Blatter later claimed to regret his words and promised to officially apologise to Ivanov.

Sepp Blatter was criticized in 2007 and 2008 for trying to change European Union employment law regarding the number of foreign players that football clubs could field at any one time.

Sepp Blatter's plans were to set a restriction of five foreign players and having six players from the said team's own nationality.

Sepp Blatter believed this would help the countries' national sides by having more national players playing in their leagues.

Sepp Blatter has often referred to the English Premier League as one of the major problems in football and used it as an example, due to the influence of foreign players, coaches and owners in the top teams.

Two days later, Sepp Blatter stated that he deplored the "evident referee mistakes" in the England v Germany and Mexico v Argentina matches, and apologised to the English Football Association and the Mexican Football Federation, acknowledging that Lampard had indeed scored against Germany and that Tevez's goal against Mexico had been scored from an offside position.

In 2011, elections were scheduled for the FIFA presidency, in which Sepp Blatter was again the incumbent candidate, running for a fourth consecutive term.

Sepp Blatter criticised the International Olympic Committee, stating FIFA manage their finances "like a housewife", after the IOC announced it would look into allegations of corruption against Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation of African Football.

Sepp Blatter received criticism for not postponing his 2011 election in which his term as FIFA President was extended through 2015, despite the fact that all other candidates for the role had been suspended or withdrew.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter was cleared of any misconduct, but his predecessor, Brazilian Joao Havelange, resigned as FIFA's honorary president over his part in the scandal, since Havelange along with former FIFA Executive Committee members Ricardo Teixeira and Dr Nicolas Leoz were found to have accepted illegal payments between 1992 and May 2000.

In 2015, elections were scheduled for the FIFA presidency, in which Sepp Blatter was again the incumbent candidate, running for a fifth consecutive term.

On 2 June 2015, FIFA abruptly called a press conference at their Zurich headquarters, where Sepp Blatter announced that he would resign from the post of FIFA president amid the ongoing corruption scandal.

Sepp Blatter announced that he would remain in office until his successor could be elected at the extraordinary congress, likely to be held some time between December 2015 and March 2016.

Sepp Blatter was further quoted as saying that he resigned "to take away the pressure from FIFA and my employees, including [pressure] from the sponsors".

On 22 December 2020, FIFA filed a criminal complaint against Sepp Blatter relating to his role in the FIFA Museum project.

On 2 November 2021, Sepp Blatter was formally charged by Swiss authorities for fraud and falsifying documents in connection with the improper payments to Platini.

Sepp Blatter has been the recipient of numerous awards, medals, honorary degrees, and citizenships from nation states, sport governing bodies, special interest groups, universities, and cities.

In 1981, Sepp Blatter married Barbara Kaser, the daughter of Helmut Kaser, Sepp Blatter's predecessor as secretary general of FIFA.

In 1995, Sepp Blatter began dating Ilona Boguska, a Polish friend of his daughter Corinne, before they separated in 2002.

Sepp Blatter married for a third time on 23 December 2002, to Graziella Bianca, a dolphin trainer who was a friend of his daughter.