Russian President, Vladmir Putin just announced during an
interview with a Swiss broadcaster RTS, that Embattled FIFA President Sepp
Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize for his work of leading world soccer's governing
body.
Now it got me thinking ,what does the Russian leader have in common
with the Swedish administrator?what is the nexus between these two men,well for one thing they both have controversial leadership
tenures, they have almost a fanatical group of supporters who term them as
heroes and equally an aggressive group of detractors who label them as villains.
Now not to diminish any of Blatter’s achievements this man
has won countless of awards and taken FIFA to greater heights during his seventeen
year reign, He sought to increase the influence of African and Asian countries
in world football through the expansion of participating teams in various FIFA
tournaments.
Blatter's reign has overseen a vast expansion in revenues
generated by the FIFA World Cup and Africa in particular has enjoyed hosting
rights of the biggest football tournament in the world. However he has persistently
been dogged by claims of corruption and financial mismanagement.
Vladmir Putin on the other hand was an officer in the KGB
for sixteen years and president of Russia on and off for thirteen years, when he
first became president, real income in Russia rose by a factor of 2.5, while
real wages more than tripled; unemployment and poverty more than halved.
Russians' self-assessed life satisfaction also rose significantly, the Russian
economy grew for eight straight years
He reduced taxes for his citizens and his energy policy
affirmed Russia’s position as an energy Super Power. A rise in foreign
investment contributed to a boom in such sectors as the automotive industry,but yet many of Putin's actions are regarded by the domestic
opposition and foreign observers as undemocratic and shifting the Russia from a
Hybrid to an authoritarian regime. In 2014, Russia was temporarily suspended
from the G8 group as a result of its annexation of Crimea.
There you have it, two powerful men who have contributed to
improving positively the places where they exercised their leader skills but were also very averse to
letting go of power and (I will say it) pissing off the western nations. Accusations
of bribery and financial misconduct had always trailed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president but he definitely met his
waterloo when England lost the world cup bid to …you guessed it Russia. even
with their impressive delegation that included one of the English's best looking export (David Beckham) and their beloved Prince William,
England still got floored by Russia on the votes.
Blatter seemed to stick the
dagger in deeper at their back by referring to the English as “sore losers” , yeah he probably should
have guessed that his days were numbered after that.
What has followed since then ,have been
countless arrests and investigations of senior FIFA Officials on allegations of fraud and mismanagement of funds,racketeering, wire fraud , money laundering geez all sorts of financial misconduct , these arrests played out in the public like a Mafia movie gone bad. In all this the strong man Blatter remained untouched.lack of evidence of the allegations against Blatter led to his non indictment by the FIFA ethics
committee , but suddenly without warning Sepp Blatter finally announced his resignation in June 2015.
What does Putin think about the whole situation? He does not
believe Blatter was involved in the corruption.and has alleged that the US and
UK were behind the probe because they lost out in the 2018 and 2022
championships.
Sigh these two men, what will history write about them when
they are gone? are they heroes or villains? I guess it depends on who you ask.
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