Joseph (Sepp) Blatter: biography. Schemer Joseph Blatter makes billions on the game This corporation is registered in Switzerland as a non-profit organization, pays minimal taxes and does not disclose the amount of remuneration for executives

The name of Joseph Blatter, who headed FIFA for many years in a row, was recognized even by people very far from sports in May-June 2015. The whole world started talking about him, and the reason for this, as usual, was a scandal. What else, besides appearing in international disputes, is this man’s personality remarkable?

Childhood and youth of the future FIFA president

Joseph (Sepp) Blatter was born shortly before the outbreak of World War II in one of the most reliable and prosperous countries in Europe. The birthday of the son of an auto mechanic and his wife from the Swiss town of Visp (which was a commune at that time) fell on March 10, 1936.

The boy’s parents had nothing to do with sports, but Blatter’s love for football appeared quite early.

Josef's passion came into his life during his studies. Which, by the way, first took place in one of the local schools, and then in schools in Sion and St. Moritz. At the age of twelve, the boy became a member of one of the amateur football clubs and played for him for 23 years - until 1971.

But most likely, Joseph Sepp Blatter in his youth did not think that football would become the basis of his career. Because after school he chose the University of Lausanne, where he studied law. The studies were successful, and already in 1956, young Sepp Blatter became the proud owner of a diploma. Which, however, was never fully used by him...

The first steps of a career in sports

Immediately after graduating from university, Blatter was accepted into the Association of Sports Journalists. And three years later he gets a job at the Tourism Council of the canton of Valais, where he heads the public relations department. Sepp Blatter spent five years of his life in this position (from 59 to 64), and then plunged headlong into sports and never “resurfaced.”

The first serious step on the ladder of a sports career for Blatter was his work at the Swiss Hockey Federation, which began in 1964. Here he made his debut as a manager, performing the duties of general secretary.

From 1970 to 1975, the future FIFA president was on the Board of Directors of the Xamax football club (Switzerland).

As an employee of one of the sentries Swiss companies, Sepp Blatter took an active part in the preparations for the year in Munich and 1976 in Montreal, which gave him invaluable experience and became a springboard for his next achievements.

By the way, there is information that it was Blatter who refereed the scandalous match between the basketball teams of the USSR and the USA in 1972 (took place as part of the Munich Summer Olympics). Sports fans remember that the referee then insisted on three unplayed seconds. And it was they who determined the fate of the match, allowing the Soviet basketball players to win.

Conquering the top of FIFA

In 1975, Blatter first “opened the doors” to the International Football Federation. And he immediately received the position of technical director of FIFA. And in 1981 he “jumped” even higher, becoming the secretary general of this most prestigious organization. And he remained so until 1998.

In 1998, the next (51st) FIFA congress took place in Paris, during which Joseph Blatter was elected as the new president of the federation. In this post, he replaced the Brazilian Joao Havelange, defeating the Swede Lennart Johannson, who headed UEFA at that time, in the election fight.

Sepp Blatter served as FIFA president for 17 years, until the summer of 2015.

Historical decisions

Sepp Blatter, whose biography is inextricably linked with the International Football Federation, managed to do a lot in almost 40 years of work in it. And he even went down in history as the author of important innovations.

For example, while still in office, Blatter began to implement serious educational programs in the football field and laid the foundation for holding world championships among players whose age does not exceed twenty and seventeen years. Also, with his light hand, women's mini-football championships began to be held around the world.

When Joseph Blatter was president of FIFA, the World Cup was held simultaneously in two countries for the first time in football history. This happened in 2002, and the hosts of the competition were then South Korea and Japan.

The Swiss has always been against major transformations of football rules. In particular, he did not support the introduction of video replays. But it was this man who introduced the automatic goal recording system, which was tested during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Scandals

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has more than once found himself at the center of high-profile scandals of various kinds.

Thus, almost at the very beginning of Blatter’s presidency - in 2001 - his name was involved in a scandal related to the bankruptcy of one of the companies that was a partner of the federation.

In 2010, the head of FIFA made an unfortunate joke about the World Cup in Qatar and homosexual fans who, they say, would have to give up sex in this country. After the wave of indignation that swept across the world, Blatter had to apologize and make excuses. He stated that he did not want to offend gays, and that he intended to demand tolerance from the Qatari authorities, with their taboo on gays.

And just a year later - in 2011 - a new scandal broke out, now related to money. Everything happened on the eve of the next FIFA presidential election, and Sepp Blatter’s rival Mohammed bin Hammam accused him of involvement in corruption schemes. The plan didn't work. The rival remained out of work, and the Swiss was re-elected for a new term.

But perhaps the loudest conflict was in 2015, when a certain circle of people had doubts about the legality of the choice of Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. respectively. The main initiators of the proceedings were the Americans.

They accused the top of FIFA (in particular, Blatter's deputies) of many years of corrupt policies and dishonesty in choosing venues for championships. More than a dozen federation employees were arrested. And all this again on the eve of the elections for the post of FIFA President.

As a result, a special commission of the International Football Federation conducted an investigation and found no alleged violations regarding Russia and Qatar. And 80-year-old Sepp Blatter still won the election - his competitor Ali bin Al-Hussein unexpectedly withdrew his candidacy at the last moment.

The elections took place on May 29, and on June 2, the re-elected president resigned... And two days later, the Americans brought charges against him personally.

Sepp Blatter prefers not to speak out much about the United States and the claims against himself. The only thing I allowed myself to do was express bewilderment and shock at the accusations.

Blatter Awards

But not only scandals “grew up” in Blatter’s work field. He has many awards from around the world, as well as international ones. The main order is, of course, the Olympic one. And besides him - orders and crosses of France, Venezuela, Djibouti, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, South Africa, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Catalonia and Ukraine.

Personal life

In his personal life, Sepp Blatter was not nearly as constant as in his work. He has three marriages and three divorces behind him. He has a daughter from his first wife. And the second wife was 41 years younger than Joseph!

"To my father, my football and our Sundays" - Sepp Blatter

41 years in FIFA is more than half of my life. And it was a time that is difficult to beat in terms of intensity, emotion and tension. FIFA influenced me. And I influenced FIFA - not alone, but with a team. Football is a team sport. And without their teammates, even Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo would not have achieved anything.

I would like to reflect in this book the last 41 years of my life, as well as the previous 39. Needless to say, the events of the last twelve months have played significant role. Because what happened since May 27, 2015 shook football. This shocked me too.

The decision to write this book together with Thomas Rangeley came to me a long time ago. Ultimately, the powerful development of the last four decades should not be undone by the events of a couple of months. In addition to football history and history, personal anecdotes and third-party opinions, this book has provided a wealth of facts—facts that should allow each reader to piece together a “picture” for themselves. And something that should not be neglected is the joys of life and a sense of humor. Because the main quality of football is that it gives joy and smiles to people around the world. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Yours Sepp Blatter

Description of images:

Start of work of the FIFA team. Sepp Blatter (with the ball), around him: Hans Rauber, Armin Rauber, Miguel Galan, Jürg Häger, Helmut Käser, Thomas von Ubritzsee, Serena Neff, Rene Cort, Liliana Alban, Ruth Hüppi, Friedrich Pruschansky and Helen Hodge (from left to right) . Absent: Helen Petermann.

Joseph Sepp Blatter is a controversial figure. But even critics must admit: no sports figure has been as successful as him.

Switzerland is made up of 26 cantons, but none of them are like Valais. There you can find the most beautiful Matterhorn mountains in the world, the longest glaciers of the Alps - Aletsch, the highest vineyard in Visperterminina, powerful Herens cows, and, according to Rainer Maria Rilke, the most beautiful girls in Switzerland.

The “Wild West of Switzerland,” as Valais is also called, is home to a thousand times fewer people than in the United States, but the Valais coat of arms has only 37 fewer stars than the US flag. And the local major league football club Sion holds two records: for the number of replaced coaches and for victories in the final of the national football Cup.

This mythical land is also the birthplace of prominent figures in Swiss history: the country's first cardinal Matthaus Schinner, hotel pioneers Ritz and Seiler, rebel skier Art Fuhrer, writers Adolf Fuchs and Maurice Zermatten and the legendary businessman and politician Caspar Jodock von Stockalper. Except that Valais never became the birthplace of the Pope, although Sepp Blatter is sometimes called the football Pope.

Sepp was born on March 10, 1936. He arrived two months ahead of schedule, and with such a desire to do everything before others, he was simply obliged to become a leader. His parents, Bertha and Josef, were deeply concerned because the midwife's prognosis was not good. But the little man chose life and never stopped fighting for it. Over the next eighty years he met every challenge of fate with Swiss belligerence and Alpine cunning.

His career at the top of world football is impressive. He transformed FIFA from a club with twelve employees and $20 million in debt into a global corporation with $1.5 billion in assets. He developed football around the world, opening new trades and bringing the World Cup final to Asia, Africa and again to Brazil. When communicating with representatives of all nations, cultures and religions, he always showed his subtle sense of tact.

He understood how to take into account the interests of 209 organizations simultaneously, and was the first to understand how to turn football into a profitable business and a political tool, although he still says that “football and politics cannot be mixed.”

Blatter initially didn't have high hopes for the contract with Coca-Cola, FIFA's first sponsor in the 1970s. However, this interaction marked the beginning of a pioneering development in football. Blatter also had a hand in the fact that today 1.6 billion people are somehow connected with football: 300 million athletes, 12% of whom are women. He said that “football unites people, builds bridges between cultures, nations and religions.” He was ready to communicate with representatives of all nations and all classes.

This book owes its birth to Blatter's desire to tell his own story, rather than leave it to strangers. For this purpose, many tape recordings and protocols (in French) were used. Thanks to the contributions of friends, family members, long-time acquaintances and colleagues, a work has emerged that provides personal information regarding one of the most dazzling figures in the sports world from a variety of perspectives and can therefore be considered objective. Swiss publicist Peter Rothenbücher posed to him questions that concern the audience.

The author of the book does not guarantee an impartial view - for this he knows Sepp Blatter too well and has worked too closely with him for the last two and a half years (as a presidential biographer who recorded all life situations). Everyone thinks that the FIFA president is a monster in a shirt and tie, the embodiment of evil. But Sepp Butter is a completely normal person who listens to the news on the radio in the morning and in the office reads about the latest results of football matches from abroad.

If, when starting work, his employees have not familiarized themselves with all the latest results of FIFA tournaments and world news, then they will have big problems with Blatter.

On that Wednesday in early October 2015, everything seemed normal. Sepp Blatter entered his office before dawn and later discussed with his old comrades Walter Gagg and Jean-Paul Brigger the result of the Germany U17 football team's performance at the World Cup in Chile.

He was aware of the proceedings of the FIFA ethics committee. But he was not directly threatened. For lunch he wanted to meet Carla Hussy, the widow of his old companion (and former Swiss national team coach) Rene Hussy. This time, however, he was caught by surprise: he was suspended for 90 days - and that was the beginning of a month of torment.

Suddenly everything changed for Sepp Blatter. His office was sealed, his email was blocked. He was banned from all activities at the World Cup. That afternoon Frau Hüssy had to find other company.

The frontal attack from the lawyers unsettled him, although he had previously survived all the hardships - he was uncompromising and even sacrificed his personal life. As a young man, he left his family because of his ambitions, and none of his three marriages was stronger than his love for the profession.

Football has always been the center of his life. Even as a child, he became known as a talented center forward for the Visp Respect football club far beyond the canton of Valais. At the age of 18, he signed a contract with the famous football club Lausanne.

However, Blatter made a name for himself in the field of sports politics. However, he still mourns his failed football career to this day. To at least eliminate the 0 in his country's statistics, he asked Kebi Kuhn to coach the team for a friendly match in the Swiss national qualifier.

Joseph Blatter is a former FIFA president who held the post for 17 years. The Swiss, a big football fan, did everything possible for him. Thanks to the efforts and work of the organization he heads, today football is considered the No. 1 sport in the whole world; there are about 3 million registered football players alone. It is played on all continents and receives wide media coverage.

Childhood and youth

Joseph Sepp Blatter, of Swiss nationality, was born on March 10, 1936 in the town of Visp, canton of Valais. The boy was born prematurely, at 7 months. The baby's weight was no more than 1.5 kg. But Josef survived, despite not receiving medical care. He studied at the colleges of Sion and St. Moritz. From the age of 12, every summer and during the winter holidays the guy worked part-time in hotels.

Personal life

The personal life of Joseph Blatter aroused interest in the press. The official himself provided rich food for gossip and rumors. The FIFA president has been married three times, but is now divorced. From his first marriage he has a daughter, Corinne, and a granddaughter, Serena. The second wife was 41 years younger than Blatter; their marriage lasted 12 months.

FIFA President Joseph Blatter came to the 2013 Ballon d'Or ceremony with his new girlfriend, 49-year-old Linda Barras (Gabrielyan), who has Armenian roots. Barras was born in Tehran and lives in Switzerland.

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2 years later, the Spanish publication El Mundo published a list of women with whom Blatter had relationships. The penultimate one on this list was the Russian model Irina Shayk. The beauty herself denied an affair with the FIFA president. The paparazzi did not have any photos of the couple together confirming their connection.

The President of the International Football Federation (FIFA) Joseph Blatter fell out not only with England, but also with Germany. An experienced sports functionary, who feels like a duck to water in various behind-the-scenes intrigues, usually behaves very carefully. However, during his last term as head of FIFA, he decided to discard all diplomacy and made a number of sensational accusations.

In world football, it seems, a new wave of high-profile revelations of high-ranking officials has begun. This time, accusations of corruption fell on Joseph Blatter's predecessor as FIFA president, Brazilian João Havelange. Blatter himself was also suspected of knowing about everything, but for some reason remained silent. The 76-year-old Swiss, in turn, accused the Germans of foul play. In an interview with Swiss publication Blick on Sunday, he hinted that Germany could well buy the rights to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup. When asked by a newspaper reporter about rumors that the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were bought by Russia and Qatar, respectively, Blatter replied: “Yes, the World Cups were bought... I remember the vote on the host of the 2006 World Cup, when someone in At the last moment he stood up and left the room. And instead of 10:10, the vote brought the result 10:9 in favor of Germany. Perhaps in that situation I was too benevolent and naive.”

The reaction to these words from Germany followed immediately. “I am unable to understand Sepp Blatter’s statements and insinuations,” legendary German footballer Franz Beckenbauer said in an interview with the Bild tabloid. “I don’t know of a single fact that something was done that was not according to the law,” Sport Bild Online quotes Theo Zwanziger, the former head of the German Football Association. “Sepp Blatter was there all the time,” Guido Tognoni, the former head of FIFA’s marketing department, couldn’t contain his anger. – Now he accuses the Germans of something, but the same accusations apply to himself. If something was wrong, he could stop everything. Throughout his tenure as FIFA President, events have been occurring in the organization that should not happen.”

Tognoni alludes in this case to statements by Sepp Blatter that he knew about bribes taken in the 90s of the last century by João Havelange and his former son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira (ex-president of the Brazilian Football Confederation). According to documents from Swiss prosecutors released last week, the "sweet couple" received 41 million Swiss francs (34 million euros) from marketing agency ISL in exchange for television rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. The documents say that a certain “P1” knew about the payments. Sepp Blatter admitted that “P1” is him. In response to another wave of calls to resign, he said the payments were legal at the time. However, just three days later, the president began to say something completely different. He allegedly learned about the illegal payments only in 2001, when the ISL went bankrupt, and FIFA, under his leadership, immediately took measures to correct the situation. Recently, Blatter even demanded that the 96-year-old Havelange be stripped of the title of honorary president of FIFA.

However, documents from the Swiss prosecutor's office refute the words of the Swiss functionary. They claim that FIFA went to great lengths to hide the bribes. This point of view is shared by the international organization Transparency International (TI), which, at Blatter’s request, tried to reform FIFA. “If the president of the International Football Federation did nothing for years, knowing about illegal payments to senior officials and trying to hide them for as long as possible, it is difficult to believe that he will reform FIFA in the future,” Sylvia Schenk, an adviser to TI, told the Guardian.

Interestingly, Blatter accused the German Football Association of buying the World Cup immediately after he was called to resign by Reinhard Raubal, head of the Association of Professional Football Teams of Germany, and Wolfgang Niersbach, the current head of the German Football Association. Moreover, the latter called the behavior of the FIFA president “shocking.” True, Joseph Blatter was by no means the first person to accuse the Germans of buying the World Cup. Guido Tognoni said almost the same thing in an interview with German radio station ZDF in December 2010. Then he also mentioned the last-minute departure of one of the members of the FIFA executive committee and said that the vote was “organized.” Two months later, Tognoni went even further and, at a sports convention in Dusseldorf, said that the German government, in order to buy the vote of one delegate from Saudi Arabia, even lifted the arms embargo on this Arab state. More than a year has passed since then, and Tognoni seems to have forgotten his words. On Monday he said that by pointing the finger at Germany, Sepp Blatter had “shot himself in the foot.”

However, anti-corruption proceedings are just beginning. On Monday it became known that FIFA has appointed former US prosecutor Michael Garcia to lead an investigation into corruption in world football. Garcia's responsibilities will also include the proceedings surrounding the competition for the right to receive the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Alexander Polotsky

The final game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was the roughest in history, but the 74-year-old head of the International Football Federation (FIFA), Joseph Blatter, apparently does not care. For him, an economist by training, the score with which Spain defeated the Netherlands is apparently not important. All this is of only secondary importance, because in any case FIFA was the winner, and this happened even before the final was over. The financial results of the 2010 World Cup are as follows: advertising revenues at the FIFA box office amounted to $3.2 billion.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter himself should be “thanked” for this, notes journalist Luke O’Brien, calling the disruptions unprecedented, and Blatter himself “a Swiss money bag who attracts accusations of corruption like a Chicago politician.”

Blatter's decisions, such as the ticketing policy and the hotel booking contract, deprived South Africa of millions of dollars that foreign visitors could have spent, the author said. […]

Svyatoslav Vasylyk

“The newspaper...” found out who he really is - FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who undeservedly found himself at the center of a holiday called the 2010 World Cup, how he is trying to change football and why he is against video replays.

Having turned the main football organization into a powerful transnational corporation, and the world championships into a profitable business project, Blatter was never able to get rid of the image of a layman in football and a dubious businessman. And the 2010 World Cup only confirmed such guesses. Yet, once dubbed in the British press as “the Swiss moneybag who attracts corruption charges like a Chicago politician,” he has headed FIFA for 12 years and expects to rule for at least another five years. The only thing that can prevent Blatter from remaining in power is his stubborn reluctance to use video replays to resolve controversial situations during the game.

Schemer and financial genius

Blatter was instilled with a passion for organizational work by his predecessor, Joao Havelange. The Brazilian “threw” the energetic Sepp into different areas of work - holding draws, children's and women's football, futsal, and the Club World Cup. He burst out with new ideas everywhere and at the same time achieved results. Already as president, Blatter turned out to be an extraordinary financier. Under him, FIFA's turnover reached $1 billion, and annual profits grew to $600 million. For $200 million, Blatter built a new FIFA headquarters in Zurich, and he allocates $300 million a year for the maintenance of the bureaucracy. True, the Swiss achieved little with the reforms. Attempts to limit the number of foreign players in clubs encountered opposition from UEFA and the EU, and the idea of ​​​​salary ceilings for football players also failed. As for Blatter's proposals to improve the rules of the game (increasing the size of the goal, reducing the number of players, abolishing offside and post-match penalties), no one took them seriously.

What does the spirit of football have to do with it?

“Blatter is 74 years old and is already too old for revolutions. It will be enough for him to talk about technology on the eve of the elections, but, having received a new term as president in 2011, the Swiss will immediately find many excuses,” writes the British The Times. According to analysts, Blatter is confused by three things. The first is financial. He doesn't want to quarrel with television and sponsors. It is TV that is not profitable to introduce video replays, because the time of matches will be extended and advertising breaks will be out of schedule. The second is political. It is no secret that referees have always been FIFA’s administrative resource; with their help, it was possible to “pull out” teams that were more financially attractive. And with the advent of video replays, there will be no “profitable” mistakes. Finally, the third point is organizational. FIFA has little idea what all this will look like. Which and how many episodes should be reviewed, how much time should be given for a break, who will make the final decision - a judge or a supervisor? Some moments in the game are so controversial that watching them can turn into a crush or even a brawl at the monitor. Any decision by FIFA on each of these issues will likely cause dissent, which is another blow to Blatter's position.

In short, it is easier for the “owner of football” to survive current criticism than to run into new ones. Moreover, if such authorities as Platini (by the way, “Blatter’s man”), Pele, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Colina and others are against technology. All their arguments boil down to the fact that technology will “kill the spirit of football.” I’m tempted to ask: what about the spirit of hockey, basketball, baseball and many other sports? modern technologies did they kill? “All Blatter needs to do is replace the mythical spirit of football with the spirit of justice, stripping the game of corruption and grievances,” writes The Times. “For now, he remains football’s number one enemy...”

Information desk "Newspapers..."

In 1975 he was appointed technical director of FIFA, and in 1981 he became secretary general of the International Federation of Association Football. Since 1998 - President of FIFA. In 2002 and 2007 was successfully re-elected.

Blatter's salary is $1.7 million per year. He has a service apartment in the center of Zurich (rent $4,000 per month). Travel allowance is $500 per day.

Blatter is twice divorced. Has a daughter from his first marriage. The second wife was 41 years younger than Blatter; their marriage lasted 12 months. In 2008, he got into a serious accident, crashing a company Mercedes worth $186 thousand, but did not receive any injuries.

Fifa's marketing efforts under Blatter 'crosses boundaries'

This corporation is registered in Switzerland as a non-profit organization, pays minimal taxes and does not disclose executive compensation.

Sergey Pankratov

The FIFA headquarters in Zurich, from where the Swiss Sepp Blatter rules world football, is set up like any local bank: everything important is underground, luxury is unobtrusive, the secrecy of deposits is guaranteed.

Finding the new headquarters of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in Zurich is not difficult. It is located on a cozy street called FIFA Strasse. From the outside, the FIFA House resembles an alien ship. Silver solar panels give this architectural work lightness and grace. The interior of the building makes an even stronger impression. The huge foyer is stunning in scale. There is a complete feeling that you are in a temple - the temple of football. Here is the altar - a large exhibition of cups. Among them, the most important one is for winning the World Championship.

Football today is more than a game. This is both politics and business. Therefore, FIFA is not a club of special interests at all. It is one of the largest corporations with annual revenues of approximately a billion dollars. Sepp Blatter's empire has 270 million subjects - this is the number of officially registered football players, referees and coaches in the world. And all the threads of managing this complex combination of sports, money and politics lead... to the underground.

Labyrinth

FIFA headquarters

There are only two floors here, did you bury the money in the ground?

Exactly, two floors are on the surface,” the guide smiles, “and five go underground.

Associations involuntarily arise with “Swiss gnomes” (as Swiss bankers are called). But everything turned out to be more prosaic. Buildings higher than two floors cannot be built in Zurich's parkland. So we had to dig in five levels. However, don't think that FIFA's 290 employees work in underground labyrinths. Much more comfortable conditions have been created for functionaries. Two ground floors of glass and steel were dedicated to offices, and every employee was given a window seat. Technical structures, a documentation center, a garage and the holy of holies - the conference hall of the FIFA executive committee - went underground.

We go downstairs in a high-speed elevator. The question inevitably arises: why is the meeting place of world football leaders located underground? Andreas seems to read my thoughts:

This was the idea of ​​the architect Tilla Theus. Important decisions should be made away from the bustle of the world.

The elevator stopped, and in complete darkness a fantastic sight opened up - a huge luminous triangle made of onyx. Meditation hall. Here, representatives of all religions can pray to their gods for victory on the football fields. We move further along the corridors, decorated with chromed metal and Brazilian marble. Andreas Herren keeps rattling off numbers, describing the virtues of the underworld, until I interrupt him:

Where is your dining room?

The attendant shrugs in surprise. It turns out that the architect, having provided for thousands of everyday details, decisively rejected the idea of ​​a food processing plant. A building that claims to be a temple where the sacraments are performed cannot be filled with the smell of fried sausages. It only has a small cafeteria. Mrs. Theus should have heard what the FIFA functionaries, who have to trudge to the restaurant of the nearby zoo for lunch, have to say about this. But this is the only inconvenience in the FIFA House. Considering that the starting salary of a headquarters employee is five thousand euros per month, then this trouble can be considered tolerable. By the way, the salaries of top FIFA officials are a trade secret.

Finally, through long underground labyrinths, we reached our final goal - the meeting room of the FIFA executive committee. In dim light, the first impression is more than strange. When a huge chandelier made of Swarovski crystals is turned on, this room is transformed, but in the twilight it looks more like the habitat of the already mentioned “Swiss gnomes”. Near the chairman's seat, I could not resist the temptation and asked permission to sit in the chair of the FIFA president. The chair is like a chair. Slightly lower than usual, matching the current president’s short stature.

Who is the head in this house

What do you think of Andrew Jennings' book? - I asked one of the FIFA leaders.

This is an absolute lie! - the football official got nervous. - Jennings is persona non grata. We have removed it from the accreditation lists of all FIFA events.

The war of incriminating evidence has been going on for years. In the end, it turned out that Blatter's opponents had not taken one thing into account. Sepp is strong at “working among the masses.” For seventeen years, Blatter held the key position of FIFA Secretary General; he personally distributed subsidies to football federations in Asia and Africa, where he has many allies. Neither the authority of UEFA nor the influence of the strongest European football clubs helped Lennart Johansson. First, he lost the FIFA presidential election to Blatter. Then he lost his European post. Blatter took an active part in the UEFA presidential elections held in January of this year, which, by the way, was a violation of ethical standards. Johansson's opponent was Michel Platini. A legendary football player, three-time Ballon d'Or winner, European champion in 1984 - but even he would hardly have been able to defeat Johansson if Sepp Blatter had not been behind him. The FIFA President accompanied Michel Platini like a shadow on all his campaign trips. And when Platini was literally ahead of Johansson at the finish line, Blatter, beaming with happiness, said: “I had no doubt about Michel’s victory.”

Blatter's unsinkability is explained in different ways. Some are sure that he is a master of combinational play off the field. During the years of undivided rule of world football, he skillfully removed all his obvious and hidden opponents from FIFA. But there is another point of view, voiced by Andreas Herren, who, by the way, worked with Blatter for more than twenty years:

All these accusations are nothing more than black PR. Sepp has a very prominent position, and many would like to sit in his chair. Football is a game where every fan considers himself an expert, and every sponsor, and especially the club owner, considers himself a strategist. Offer someone from the moneybags to lead a classical orchestra, it is unlikely that he will agree. But the football club - please.

According to Herren, the situation is the same with FIFA: anyone with a little knowledge of football affairs is confident that they know how to run this organization.

Congress of Winners

On the day of my visit to the FIFA headquarters, Bolivian President Evo Morales was received there. He tried to convince Sepp Blatter to lift the ban on international matches in regions located above 2,500 meters above sea level (almost all of Bolivia is in the highlands). Convinced. Immediately after the meeting, Blatter and Morales went out onto the football field located at the entrance to the headquarters and demonstrated their ability to handle the ball to reporters. Blatter did it better. Apparently, he was more accustomed to juggling a ball in a suit and tie.

If Blatter survives to the end of his third term, then in total, as Secretary General and President, he will lead FIFA for thirty years. This is a whole era. The answer to the question of what she was like is ambiguous. At first glance, Sepp Blatter supports the ideas of Platini, who intends to sharply limit the influence of big business on football. However, as one former FIFA functionary told Itogi: “Michel Platini is a football romantic, and Sepp simply used him to settle scores with Johansson. How can Blatter oppose big business when FIFA itself is today a large corporation?”

Indeed, the amounts that the International Football Federation operates place it among the largest companies. For example, FIFA’s income from the last World Cup in Germany amounted to about 1.86 billion euros - this is the amount received from the sale of tickets and television rights, advertising, souvenirs, etc. If we talk about the costs of holding the World Championship , then they amounted to 755 million euros. Plus contributions to football associations of developing countries. As a result, FIFA's profit, according to various estimates, ranged from 400 to 600 million euros. But that is not all.

Recently, former US women's soccer team goalkeeper Mary Harvey took over the leadership of FIFA's development division. The lady literally turned the entire marketing policy of the organization upside down. She became thoughtful and aggressive in an American way. Today, not a single souvenir, not a single badge, even from the World Cup for seventeen-year-olds, can be sold without payments from FIFA. Before the World Cup in Germany, Harvey took all measures to prevent outsiders from making money on advertising. Its employees have patented more than 800 synonyms for the phrases “World Cup”, “World Championship”, “Mundial” and so on in different languages.

And with such income, FIFA pays only 4.25 percent in taxes! Because in Switzerland this transnational corporation is registered as a non-profit organization.

Meanwhile, FIFA's noticeably increased business activity is increasingly subject to harsh criticism. Thus, the President of the German Football Association Theo Zwanziger noted that during the preparation of the 2006 World Cup, marketing crossed the boundaries of what was acceptable.

At the championship there were some funny things. For example, employees of a brewing company - the official supplier of the championship - forced Dutch fans to take off their pants. Only under this condition did they get the opportunity to watch a football match between their national team and the Ivory Coast team. The fact is that one well-known brewery in the Netherlands dressed several thousand Dutch fans in lederhosen (traditional leather shorts), of course, placing its logo on them And when, at the stadium in Stuttgart, representatives of the official supplier saw thousands of fans in the ill-fated shorts, the question arose: either the Dutch were taking them off, or they were banned from entering the stadium. And then the male fans had to take off these items of national costume and watch the game in only underwear. Fortunately, for many of them it turned out to be the national color, orange.

It's clear that the world's most popular game is at a crossroads. Today in football the question is more acute than ever whether the financial viability of a club should influence the result more than the skill and willpower of the players. The answer to this depends on what mood will prevail at FIFA headquarters. If it increasingly turns into a political-commercial organization, then the romantics will definitely lose to the “Swiss gnomes.”

Our man in Zurich

They say that it is impossible to get a job at FIFA headquarters without cronyism.

In my opinion, staff turnover still occurs and it is possible to get a job there. But you need to take into account that you must at least be fluent in three languages ​​and plus be a first-class professional in your field - for example, marketing, accounting, PR. And, of course, to know football thoroughly. If you have such candidates, let them contact me for help, I will try to help.

How much do federation leaders earn?

Even we, members of the executive committee, do not know what the salaries of top FIFA functionaries, and especially Blatter, are.

You have known Blatter for a long time, please evaluate his activities.

He is a strong leader. Otherwise, I would not have pulled FIFA out of the abyss in which this organization found itself eight years ago. And today it is a successful company.

Exactly the company?

I’m not afraid of this comparison; today FIFA is inherently closer to a successful corporation.

They say that there is almost a cult of Blatter's personality in FIFA. Open the official website, there are more than thirty portraits of the president.

I don't think Blatter has usurped power in FIFA. He, of course, cannot be called a democrat, but, on the other hand, someone would try to manage an organization that includes 208 national football federations. Here it is simply impossible without a certain rigidity.