Sepp Blatter resigns as FIFA President: A great day in world football

The resignation of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter earlier this week marked a wonderful moment for any persons closely involved in and around world football. 

The uncovering of the confirmed corruption and criminal activities that go far and deep into the world’s most popular sporting governing body should be of no surprise to knowledgeable onlookers, particularly since the announcement of the 2022 World Cup to be held in the Arab, and most unlikely venue, country of Qatar.

Last week Sepp Blatter, who lead FIFA for 17 years, came out fighting for his position after being re-elected for another term as FIFA president. 

Two days ago, Blatter handed in his resignation and claimed that FIFA now needs a massive overhaul after just reaffirming that in fact there was nothing to hide for the executive committee. 

The most interesting part of the resignation will be, without a shadow of doubt, the fallout of events that are bound to happen over the next weeks, months, or years as claims of corruption have been backdated to nearly two decades ago.

But what this means for Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy and his country is different scenario, and ultimately how this actually affected our bid for a 2018 and 2022 World Cup.

Lowy presented in an open letter to the public last Wednesday that “Australia has tried its best to work within football forums to promote reform. In 2013 we began work on ideas which would allow FIFA to operate with greater transparency and accountability. Many others in world football have been working on similar projects.”

Of course, this is probably what Lowy wants Australians, most of all, to believe to begin the process of saving his own backside.

Lowy then went on to write, “we ran a clean bid. I know that others did not, and I have shared what I know with the authorities, including Michael Garcia who undertook a 2-year investigation into the 2022 World Cup bid. But did we make mistakes? Yes. Were we naïve? In some cases, yes. Would we do things differently in future? Absolutely.”

Does this mean that the FFA can be put into the corrupted category too? 

It will be important to keep an open mind as ever as US authorities, notably the FBI, get right down to the business end of the longest run of controversial events in world football to date.