Football
Sepp Blatter Investigated by FBI ahead of FIFA President’s Resignation
The 79-year-old was being investigated prior to his shocking resignation Tuesday, just four days after being elected to a fifth four-year term.
Sepp Blatter announced Tuesday that he plans to resign as FIFA’s president, but the 79-year-old won’t be able to pull himself away from the biggest controversy to hit soccer’s governing body in over a century of existence.
The FBI has started an investigation on Blatter as part of a probe that led to nine soccer officials being indicted last week, a U.S. official confirmed to Goal. Several news outlets across the U.S. and Europe have reported that Blatter could be a part of the alleged corruption concerning the other FIFA officials.
The FBI has not commented on Blatter because he has not been publicly identified as a target in the investigation, according to ABC News. Meanwhile, the Swiss attorney general has stated Blatter is not a part of its investigations.
Last week’s FIFA Congress, at which Blatter was re-elected to a fifth term, had been preceded by the arrest of nine soccer officials at a hotel in Zurich, with a total of 14 people then indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice under charges of racketeering, fraud and money laundering.
On the same day, Swiss authorities announced an investigation into corrupt practices by unnamed people during the bidding process for the hugely controversial 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar, respectively.
Blatter will remain as president until a new one is elected.