Sepp Blatter Sepp Blatter Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born 10 March 1936) is a Swiss football administrator who was the eighth President of the FIFA (French: "Fédération Internationale de Football Association") from 1998 to 2015. He is currently serving a six-year ban from participating in FIFA activities. From a background in business, public relations, and sports administration, Blatter became general secretary of FIFA in 1981 and was then elected president at the 51st FIFA Congress on 8 June 1998, succeeding João Havelange, who had headed the organization since 1974. Blatter was reelected in 2002, 2007, 2011, and 2015. Like his predecessor Havelange, Blatter
Sepp Blatter broke confidentiality agreements. This questionable behaviour led him to remove Zen-Ruffinen from office immediately before the 2002 FIFA World Cup. In April 2012 the Council of Europe published a report which stated it would be "difficult to imagine" that Blatter would have been unaware of "significant sums" paid to unnamed FIFA officials by ISSM/ISL in connection with lucrative contracts for World Cup television rights and the subsequent bankruptcy and collapse of ISL in 2001. The Council of Europe report will be considered by over 300 parliamentarians from the 47 Council of Europe member states in Strasbourg. Controversy came in the