Newsmaker: Sepp Blatter’s box of tricks is empty

In the world of football and politics, there is no shortage of unbelievable tales about Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s power and ego trips.

South African officials talk about a surreal and belittling experience during the process of bidding for the rights to host the 2010 World Cup.

While on a visit to Zurich, a delegation of football executives, senior government ministers and businessmen was told by Fifa minions that Blatter had agreed to grant them an “audience” – terminology usually only used in relation to meeting the pope or royalty.

After being kept waiting in a holding area, they were led into a room where they would have their “audience”. After another lengthy wait, Blatter shuffled in without apology. He walked along the line, shaking hands and uttering a one-line pleasantry through his fake grin as if he was greeting players before a football final.

And boom, it was over. They were led out, and the great man went back to the business of the day.

Another tale is of him taking a helicopter ride over Cape Town during an inspection before the building of the 2010 stadiums. He is said to have pointed to an area – Green Point – where he wanted the stadium that would host one of the semifinals to be built, saying he wanted to be able to take in the city’s breathtaking views from the comfort of the presidential suite.

Yet another is of him always insisting that his car be parked so close to the door of his jet that he only had to take two steps to get to it. According to his protocol officers, this was equal to the number of steps the pope takes and, because Blatter is the only other person on the planet who is apparently on that level, he is entitled to similar treatment.

Such was the God complex of the man who, for the past 17 years, has presided over an organisation that is more powerful than most advanced countries, richer than many developed nations and more corrupt than some of the world’s worst basket cases.

Under him and his predecessor and mentor João Havelange – who led Fifa from 1974 to 1998 – the federation became a powerful, bullying, money-printing machine.

Following the opening of criminal proceedings against him by the Swiss attorney-general’s office on Friday, the engines of his hearse have been revving. It is early days yet, but even those who are in awe of Blatter’s incredible fight-back prowess are saying that the political graveyard is his next destination.

The crimes he is accused of are the product of his God complex, a complex that bred recklessness. The first allegation involves the sale of TV broadcast rights for the 2010 and 2014 cups to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) for $600 000 – a price that was “unfavourable for Fifa”. The CFU, which was at the time headed by Blatter’s confidant Jack Warner, then quietly transferred the rights to Warner’s media company, which sold them on for more than $15 million. Nice deal if you can get it.

Warner is also facing charges relating to this. Investigators believe the buying of Warner’s loyalty and the support of his federation for Blatter’s continued presidency lay behind this sweet arrangement.

The second allegation relates to the payment of 2 million Swiss francs (R28.5 million at the current exchange rate) to Fifa’s president-in-waiting Michel Platini.

The soccer legend and European football supremo has been linked to several scandals in the past, including possibly accepting favours in return for supporting Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid. But this is the one that could stick and prevent him from becoming the next Blatter.

The “disloyal payment”, in the words of the Swiss authorities, was ostensibly for work Platini did between 1999 and 2002. Suspiciously, he only received payment for his services in 2011.

Now, instead of inheriting the presidency from Blatter in February next year, he will most likely find himself standing beside him in the dock.

In the past, the wily Blatter has been able to use his political skills, incredible charm, bullying tactics and Fifa’s overflowing largesse to fight off challenges.

In June – following the indictment of 14 officials and executives – he tried to pull a fast one by announcing he would be stepping down next year and use the remainder of his term to clean up Fifa and restore its image.

He had hoped for clamours of “please don’t go, please don’t go” from those he had charmed and done favours for in the past, but they seemed to see the writing on the wall.

It can now safely be said that Blatter’s box of tricks is empty. In the court of law, political acumen, charm, bullying and “favours” count for nil.

Blatter’s rise to power

Sepp Blatter (79) joined Fifa in 1975 as director of development programmes and began working his way up the ranks at the world football organisation. In 1981, he was appointed general-secretary under then president João Havelange.

He took over from Havelange in 1998 and led the organisation through the 1998 World Cup in France, the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, the 2006 World Cup in Germany and brought it to Africa for the first time in 2010.

He is a divisive figure in world football. While some have hailed him for making the organisation financially sound through lucrative sponsorship and other deals, he has also been criticised for surrounding himself with officials from smaller football federations who have kept him in power through patronage