The FIFA arrests: a great week for football but who can stop Sepp Blatter's fifth term in office?

Just good friends: Danny Jordaan and Sepp Blatter

ANDREW JENNINGS, the investigative reporter who has spent a lifetime exposing FIFA corruption, hit the nail on the head hours after the arrest of six officials in Switzerland. His view: “A great day for football.”

While President Sepp Blatter, stubbornly attempting a fifth term in charge of the world footballing body, denies involvement as his henchmen collapse in handcuffs around him, Jennings neatly brings South Africa in to the debate, pointing out: “Perhaps it’s time to consider Danny Jordaan’s involvement. He was always full of praise for Blatter.”

FIFA’s official response in their hastily convened press conference hours after the arrests: “We go on with the election as planned. We cannot confirm how many are arrested. The World Cups in Qatar and Russia go ahead as planned.”

No doubt Blatter will attempt to describe the arrests as further proof of FIFA clearing out their corrupt element, ignoring his position as the spearhead of the Qatar bid, the chief corruptor amongst the corrupt.

And he’ll probably question the FBI’s involvement in a bizarre action which saw foreign nationals in famously-neutral Switzerland led away in chains from their 5-star hotel rooms for extradition to the United States.

But the FBI is entitled to act as the huge bribes surrounding Qatar and other World Cup bids were carried out in US dollars.

It’s not just bribes that are being look in to. Charge of wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering are also on the indictment from New York. As Jennings says: “This goes back years, I’ve handed over all my documents to the FBI. At last somebody has taken action. I’ve alerted authorities in Britain, Germany and even South Africa to what has been going on, but nobody would act.”

For South Africans, this means the extraordinarily profitable 2010 World Cup will come under scrutiny as the investigation expands. We were required to sign documents during the tournament which allowed FIFA the free flow of foreign currency through our borders; the closure of businesses and roads within a mile of grounds… while South Africa is left with half-a-dozen expensive stadia dotted around the country.

Any credit Blatter gained from finally bringing the World Cup to Africa has to be weighed against what it cost the Rainbow Nation and though Jordaan – who now looks eminently suitable for his role as Nelson Mandela Bay’s fourth majory in ten years – has R350m hidden away in a FIFA Legacy Fund account, what have we really got to show for it?

Jennings happily moved the discussion on from FIFA to Issa Hayatou, who has been in charge of the Confederation of African Football even longer than Blatter has controlled the world game. He says: “I put all Hayatou’s bribes on television four years ago, hopefully this will bring him down too.”

According to FIFA: “Blatter is not dancing in his office, but he is calm.”

But the unforgettable sight of Swiss police hand-cuffing two FIFA vice-presidents in their luxury Zurich hotel where they are accustomed to coffee not coppers will not quickly disappear.

As I write, the Swiss attorney general is questioning those who voted on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup decisions. When Russia and Qatar were announced as hosts in 2010, I was still British-based but had already arrived in South Africa for the World Cup. At the time, I told listeners in Johannesburg and Cape Town that those votes were clearly bogus, the result of bribery and governments who put money before people.

For years, Blatter and his cronies, many of them living lifestyles far removed from the footballers in the tiny nations they represent, have shrugged off such allegations.

Not any more. The timing of this week’s action is classic. Seven arrests for “rampant, deep-rooted, serious corruption” cannot be laughed off. And even as the US authorities moved in, the Swiss – who have put up with Blatter’s conniving for so long – launched their own investigation in to the executive committee.

The US justice department says nine FIFA officials and FIVE executives have been indicted. Yet FIFA say none of them will be suspended for the big re-election vote. The dismiss suggestions of a re-vote over Qatar.

For 17 years, Sepp Blatter has handed out millions of non-profit-making FIFA profits in return for votes. Like so many sporting dictators – Bernie Ecclestone and Formula One springs instantly to mind – he will hang on long after retirement age, long after common sense suggests it’s time to go.

Today Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula insisted South Africa has nothing to hide, that a $10m bribe to encourage votes for South Africa 2010 was without substance. He compared the allegations to "a Hollywood movie". He may well be right.

But the investigation will touch on South Africa. Whether he likes it or not. And a quick look at football in South Africa suggests a few arrests - on match-fixing, corruption or racketeering - might come in handy.

While Danny Jordaan was duly crowned Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay yesterday, the nation was recovering from Bafana Bafana's successive COSAFA defeats against Botswana and Malawi on penalties. Attendances are down, our top clubs can't get past round one in the African Champions League and we can no longer boast a single player in the top leagues of Europe.

Our game is a mess. These allegations form a gloomy backdrop to declining standards and poor development. And we are not alone. It's high time football had a shake up, even if we have to rely on the FBI to do it.

The official statement, as expected: “FIFA welcomes actions that can help contribute to rooting out and wrong-doing in football… we are pleased to see the investigation is being energetically pursued for the good of football and believe that it will help to reinforce measures that FIFA has already taken.”

That’s Walter de Gregorio tap dancing before the world’s media while Blatter hides himself away, claiming a sudden loss of weight and improvement in health make him suitable for another term.

But anybody who knows football knows this: the emperor has no hope. He has no clothes.

Sepp Blatter: FIFA's re-elected emperor has clothes, but no moral fibre

Plain sailing resumes in the Sepp Blatter FIFAdom. Just about all of Zurich’s 208 representatives, three of them suspended, gathered to ease their president through stormy seas and on to a serene fourth term.

Emperor Sepptic, with clothes but no moral fibre, emerges to tell us he was “the captain of the ship”, and he would steer that stricken vessel to safety.

He’ll change the way World Cups are awarded, he’ll make FIFA so transparent we’ll be able to see right through it. As if we don’t already.

All smiles today, not like Monday night’s “elegance and respect” ranting at the world’s media. No waving of the FIFA Ethics book. This paid-up audience was his. He waffled on for ages, saying nothing, reassuring those worried executives at Adidas, Emirates Airlines and Visa. When sponsors like that get uptight, Blatter goes in to top gear, even at the ripe old age of 75.

More talk of this Ethics place. Has he ever been to Chelmsford on a Friday night?

Of course Uncle Josep was enjoying himself today. He’d just seen attempts to unseat his sizeable bottom from the football’s hottest seat fail, with a little help from what FIFA watchers might call “the little big guns”.

England’s David Bernstein was shot down in flames by Haiti, Congo, Benin and Cyprus. Hardly the big names of football or the global political stage, but important here, where money makes the ball go round.

Bernstein had done his best to satisfy the angry folks at home. After the suspended Jack “Pirates of the Caribbean” Warner had leaked FIFA big-shot Jerome Valcke’s email - the one which said “Qatar might have bought the World Cup but they can’t by the FIFA Presidency” Bernstein had quite reasonably requested a postponement of today’s one-man election.

While Germany’s Theo Zwanziger called for a review of the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, Bernstein (with a little help from arch-democrat and self-made-man Prince William in the tabloids) called for a delay, presumably so somebody more stiff-upper-lipped could have a tilt at Blatter.

Bernstein received a smattering of polite applause before the mighty voices of Haiti, Benin, Congo and Cyprus put him back in his place. “Undemocratic”, they said, “Destabilising”, “Let’s all pull together”. That sort of bunkum. Forget Ethics or Middlethex.

And then came Argentina. Never England’s greatest allies (google Malvinas and/or Hand Of God), their bloke Julio Grondona insisted: "We always have attacks - mostly with lies and with the support of journalism which is more busy lying than telling the truth."

Yup. Lies. That’s why the Sun in London this morning ran the classic “Despot the difference” with pictures of Blatter and Ghadaffi.

That’s why two executive committee members – Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam, who so controversially “bought” that World Cup for Qatar in 2022 – are suspended.

Wasn’t Bin Hammam the one who was supposed to be competing against Blatter extending a reign which started in 1998, when Lionel Messi was a tiny young thing?

Cleary, we must all be wrong. An attempt to change the agenda failed miserably, with just two absentions (probably England and Scotland) and three suspensions to mar the unanimous vote.

But efforts to delay the actual crowning of Blatter soon failed too. This time 17 countries backed England's call and another 17 abstained. Progress. But nowhere near the 75 percent support needed to delay Blatter’s fourth presidency. A landslide 172 delegates voted for Blatter’s coronation (and continued pocket lining for the tiny nations).

Not your fault, Mr Bernstein. Like the Eurovision song contest, England are viewed as arrogant colonial bullies, and in football the envy shown towards the almighty English Premier League causes real resentment among the smaller nations.

And of course, the 2018 World Cup bid saw England garner just one real vote. After all those appearances by the hard-working, family-businessman Prince William and his humble pal Baron David Beckham. Russia ran away with it of course, despite the technical difficulties of travelling vast distances between stadia and the huge cost of building nine new stadia.

Just like Qatar really. Australia had a perfect bid. With the Sydney 2000 Olympics and 2003 Rugby World Cup, who could doubt their credentials. But Qatar, with 12 stadia within an hour of eachother, temperatures soaring above 40 degrees and no evidence of every assembling a crowd of over 15,000 for a football match, made it.

And if you want to know what the conditions are like for workers in Qatar, try http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-30/-inhuman-conditions-overshadow-qatar-world-cup-unions-say.html

Ah, the injustice. But we little Englanders bleat too much. It will be four long years before Frenchman Michel Platini gets to make his hop from UEFA presidency to FIFA ubergruppenfuhrer.

Then the trouble really will start. Platini is no fan of the big English clubs, let alone the nation.

He wants the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United to cut back their debt to manageable levels, leaving Arsenal the only side standing in the top half of the Premier League. Hmm. Maybe that’s not such a bad idea.

And by then Bin Hammam and Jack Warner will be long forgotten, as will Valcke’s incriminating but “private” email).

Russia and Qatar will merrily host two difficult World Cups, FIFA will make a packet and all this will be for nought.

But it’s wrong. There is a slim chance Brazil's Ricardo Teixeira could squeeze in ahead of Platini. Me? I’d plump for Danny Jordaan, the principled, quietly-spoken brains behind South Africa 2010.

But it appears to matter little for now. Over the next four year’s Blatter will batter his bitter enemies, introducing apparent reforms and using his Swiss bank accounts to good effect.

Not a great time to be head of the FA. But not a bad time to be Haiti’s FIFA delegate.

Who the hell is Neal Collins (nealcol on Twitter)? See www.nealcollins.co.uk.

Sepp Blatter is Superman. Pass me the Krytonite, Danny Jordaan.

“Sepp Blatter is Superman.” That’s what some bloke called (deep breath) Liutauras Varanavicius told England's Daily Telegraph as he arrived in Zurich for today's FIFA Presidency vote. Lit, as I like to call him, is the president of the mighty Lithuanian Football Association.

Inside the footballing halls of power, Blatter greeted the 208 members of his footballing congress by confirming he is, by a remarkable twist of FIFA fate, the only candidate after Qatar’s suspended representative Mohamed Bin Hammam withdrew on Sunday.

Yes, Bin Hammam. The man who persuaded FIFA his tiny, overheated, oily emirate should be awarded the 2022 World Cup ahead of mighty Australia last December.

Jack Warner, the CONCACAF bloke who is also currently suspended, has blown the lid on Blatter’s over-long reign. He showed us an email from Blatter’s oily henchman Jerome Valcke which said “Qatar cannot buy the FIFA Presidency like they did the World Cup.”

Bosh. Done. Blatter’s reign must end. The decision to go ahead with Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 must be reviewed.

Both the English and Scottish FAs earlier today called on FIFA to delay Blatter’s one-man election – but with Lithuanians and the like around, it just ain’t going to happen to Superman.

Unless Michael Platini, the head of UEFA, can be persuaded to run – or perhaps Danny Jordaan, the South African who ran the 2010 show so well - we may just have to accept another four years of Septic Blatter, 75, who has been in charge of the world game since 1998.

The FA statement insisted: “An external party should be appointed to improve governance of FIFA.”

Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International joined the chorus, with Sylvia Schenk, their senior advisor on Sport, saying: "Free and fair elections cannot take place when there is a suspicion that voters may have been swayed. Fifa delegates know that they must clean house if their vote is to have legitimacy."

Stewart Regan, chief executive officer of the Scottish FA, said his organisation wanted the vote postponed for three to six months while there was an independent review into the matter.

He said: “Things are changing on an hourly basis so we’ll decide as close to the vote as possible about what well do with our vote.”

Delays? Independent reviews? Preposterous. Blatter would never allow it.

The sad old dictator who frantically waved his ethics booklet around when verbally savaged by journalists in Monday night’s classic press conference opened his congress last night by saying: “I thought that we were living in a world of fair play, mutual respect and discipline, and I must say this is not the case any.

“It’s no longer the case because our pyramid of Fifa is suddenly unstable on its basis and there’s a danger.”

At least he’s admitting that much. The night before he was insisting there was no crisis and telling us to be elegant and respectful.

Blatter, standing for a fourth term in his personal FIFAdom, said he would speak to delegates tomorrow, is reported to have told the English Daily Telegraph he will be telling his delegates today “about this danger that’s lurking and tell you how we can fight and react to this threat.”

But football can take guidance from that other famously troubled international sporting body, the International Olympic Committe. Their president, Jacques Rogge (pictured with Blatter above), took the chance to tell FIFA’s delegates: “Thirteen years ago we were having to face the same ordeal in the Salt Lake City case. The IOC ultimately emerged a stronger organisation, and from within. Our past calls for humility, and I will definitely not point the finger or lecture you. I’m sure FIFA can emerge stronger, and from within.”

We can only pray that happens. I'm not holding my breath.

Who the hell is Neal Collins (nealcol on Twitter)? See www.nealcollins.co.uk.