The Buck Doesn't Stop With Blatter, So What's Next For FIFA?

Blatter is finally set to step down as FIFA president

I still need to pinch myself after reading the news. It’s finally happened. After 17 long years of tyranny and corruption, the pressure finally got too much for possibly football’s most despicable man – Sepp Blatter to handle, with the Swiss finally set to step down as the president of FIFA days after being re-elected.

And believe it or not we actually owe a lot of the spoils to the Americans, the fine folks who insist on calling an intense battle for a single piece of pigskin, soccer. The ever powerful FBI managed to drive one of the killing blows to Blatter’s much-maligned reign as football’s supremo with the arrests of nine FIFA officials from various countries among others on charges of corruption.

While others have labelled the arrests as one of the darkest moments in football’s history, others saw it as a silver lining. A select few saw the arrests as a means to finally trap Blatter and reel him in hook, line, and sinker.

By the looks of things those select few were proven right. Blatter simply has no logical way of steering himself clear of the mounds of unethical activities that occurred under his watch, and with the high and mighty of Europe’s elite football nations waiting to lead a mutiny against him, quitting seemed like the best option.

Blatter’s powerful friends and enemies

Quite a few of the European nations, most prominently England, as well as UEFA chief Michel Platini grew wary of Blatter and his blatant misuse of power and were all set to host a meeting after his re-election to assess their options, with the possibility of a European withdrawal from the World Cup.

Everyone, including the World Cup’s sponsors, and even Blatter himself knew that a World Cup without Europe just wouldn’t work and must have taken that into consideration when he chose to pull the plug on his term as president. The only solace Blatter can find from this incident is that the Swiss authorities won’t be pursuing an investigation against him, which leaves one less closet for skeletons to fall out from.

However, the buck doesn’t stop with Blatter. The 79-year-old is still just a cog, a very powerful one I may add, in a still corrupt FIFA machine. Don’t get me wrong I’m not degrading FIFA as an organization, that’s not my intention. The organization isn’t evil, it’s the individuals within it who are. There are still quite a few bad elements in FIFA that need to be weeded out.

Even though Blatter’s days are numbered he still has his group of cronies and like-minded, lawless individuals still operating within FIFA. It mustn’t be forgotten that even though England kept their promise of not voting for the Swiss, a few associations like those of France, Spain and Russia, three very powerful football countries, as well as a number of African nations still voted for Blatter over Prince Ali.

This clearly shows that there are still some individuals with FIFA who are clearly unhealthy for the organization. Keeping these individuals in check is going to be a task for the next, hopefully decent and honest, FIFA president.

Michel Platini and David Gill are in the mix for the FIFA president role

The successor

Even though the next FIFA election will take as long as December to finally see the light of day, UEFA chief Michel Platini is already the bookies favourite to step into the hot seat. Although Platini, who has done a whole lot of good for football during his time as UEFA chief, would probably make a good FIFA head I personally feel David Gill should enter the running for the role.

Now don’t get me wrong I’m not being biased in my decision to consider Gill, who was a fantastic chief executive for Manchester United, as possibly FIFA’s next president just because I’m a Red Devils fan. You got to admit the man showed a lot of conviction and strength of character when he decided to resign from his post on the FIFA Executive Committee as he had promised to do in case Blatter got re-elected for a fifth term.

Gill had nothing to lose as not one of the officials arrested were English, but still did the right thing and refused to work under a man who let a lot of what football stands for go to hell under his watch. Gill, in a statement released by the FA, has left the door open for a return to FIFA and hopefully he’ll decide to enter the running for president of the organization. A person of such strong character who refuses to bow down to corruption is the leader FIFA’s in dire need of.

That said, no matter who the next president is he’ll have the task of salvaging the organization's image which is not going to be a pleasure cruise. Only time will tell who’ll take the reins of football’s top job, but one thing’s for sure – today the beautiful game has won.