The Guardian reports that Sepp Blatter is stepping down from FIFA. An extraordinary congress will be called to choose a replacement and he will not stand as a candidate. The proximate cause is the massive DOJ operation.
17 years of mismanagement and corruption, blown away.
Loretta Lynch - a MOTM performance!
UPDATE: A selection of things I enjoyed from the Guardian live feed:
*Blatter told Swiss TV on Friday: “Why would I step down? That would mean I recognise that I did wrong.” Hmmm.
*The FA’s chairman, Greg Dyke, is delighted and asks questions about what will happen to the two World Cups (2018 and 2022) that are at th heart of the corruption scandal that has enveloped Fifa: “Something has come out of the events of last week that has caused Mr Blatter to resign … He’s gone. At long last we can sort out Fifa. We can go back to looking at those two World Cups. If I were Qatar right now I wouldn’t be feeling very comfortable.”
* There were barely 15 people present for the most important press conference in the world governing body’s recent history.
*More from the FA chairman, Greg Dyke, who is a bit giddy to say the least: “He’s stood down. He’s gone. Let’s celebrate … this is nothing to do with Mr Blatter being honourable, he hasn’t been honourable in years.”
UPDATE: Thanks to pgm 01 for the comment pointing out the full extent to which Lynch deserves credit for the DOJ's swoop:
WaPo
Concern in 2010 about deep corruption in FIFA helped galvanize a burgeoning investigation into the international soccer organization and the way the World Cup is awarded. It was launched in the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, where Loretta E. Lynch, who this year became Holder’s successor, was starting her second term as U.S. attorney...Lynch oversaw the investigation into FIFA — the Federation Internationale de Football Association — for nearly five years. Investigators finalized their plans to make arrests in Switzerland in the past couple of weeks as Lynch was beginning her tenure as the new attorney general.