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Sepp Blatter Bolsters Credentials for FBI Director, Slams Whistleblowers

"Before long whistleblowers will be allowed to go to everything."
Aaron Gordon
Original images via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons/VICE Sports illustration

Our old friend Sepp Blatter is back providing breathtakingly out-of-touch quotes, this time by way of writer David Conn's new book, The Fall of the House of FIFA. In an excerpt published by The Guardian, Conn sat down for lunch with the former FIFA boss, who proceeded to rail against almost everyone with whom he used to be associated, particularly those like Chuck Blazer and Jeffrey Webb who caved to American and Swiss prosecutors. Blatter has no kind thoughts for snitches like Blazer, who wore a wire during the 2012 London Olympics.

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Amazingly, he expressed his ill will toward whistleblowers in the same interview he (once again) tried to explain that, as FIFA boss, there was simply nothing he could do to prevent all this corruption. From the lunch meeting:

[Blatter] is not impressed with whistleblowers in general, even criticising Yuliya Stepanova, who had recently exposed the Russian state doping of athletes, the great scandal breaking over athletics. "She wants to go to the Olympics, and now everybody says it is a shame she can't go because she is a whistleblower. Before long whistleblowers will be allowed to go to everything," he sneered. "Because if you are a whistleblower, it's not correct as well."

Startled by that statement, I asked him to clarify; was he saying whistleblowers are not correct?

"No," he confirmed. "At school, if you had somebody who was a whistleblower towards the tutor, then …" and he trailed off, as if it was obvious.

"Do you still think that?" I asked.

"Yes."

"That they are like a snitch in school?"

"Yes, yes," he said.

Every time Blatter opens his mouth, it's easier and easier to understand how FIFA got to where it is.

Tagged:fifaCorruptionSepp Blattersnitches get stitchessoccerSportsVICE Sports
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