“Now it is up to the fans, players and national associations to reclaim football and bring it back to its roots under new leadership.”
So said Sepp Blatter in a post on X on July 21, as the former FIFA President suggested World Cup 2026 was the year that the competition had “lost its credibility” in his latest dig at successor, Gianni Infantino.
But that quote would have been just as relevant following Blatter’s resignation as the head of world football’s governing body in June 2015, amid a huge corruption investigation into top FIFA officials. The fact that Blatter is now lecturing Infantino as if he is a moral arbiter of the sport is an embarrassing look for him, FIFA and football.
How can Sepp Blatter criticise Gianni Infantino with a straight face?
Blatter is not the most prolific poster on X, as you might expect from someone who turned 90 in March. However, the man who calls himself a ‘Football Philosopher’ in his bio has upped his social media game this summer, with the World Cup and Infantino’s doomed plan to sell off stakes in the tournament and other FIFA competitions to private investors giving him plenty to talk about.
Since June 13, the Swiss has shared several posts on X criticising FIFA over various issues including the decision to overturn USA striker Folarin Balogun’s one-match ban after President Donald Trump waded in, the World Cup final half-time show and Infantino’s investment proposal. Those posts are almost always accompanied by the hashtags #GianniInfantino and #DonaldTrump.
The longest World Cup has come to an end - with the right champions. But on the way to the final whistle, the tournament had lost its credibility. Politics must not be allowed to overshadow the game. Now it is up to the fans, players and national associations to reclaim football…July 21, 2026
Blatter’s views are certainly valid and will be shared by millions of fans (what’s that meme about the worst person you know making a great point?) but it is frankly incredible that he can write them with a straight face.
In two of his posts, the former FIFA chief used the Latin phrase ‘Quo vadis’, which means ‘where are you going?’. This was Blatter seemingly questioning FIFA’s direction of travel under Infantino - something he may have wanted to consider during his own tenure.
Between his election in 1998 and resignation 17 years later, the organisation was dogged by numerous scandals including allegations of corruption and the controversial decision in 2010 to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively. This culminated in the investigation in 2015, which saw seven top FIFA officials arrested in Zurich on the eve of the FIFA Congress, with Blatter resigning days later.
It is important to note here that Blatter was not one of the officials arrested and he was cleared last year of corruption charges stemming from his time at FIFA, which related to a payment of 2m Swiss francs (now about £1.84m) he made to then-UEFA President Michel Platini in 2011.
However, he was banned from football for eight years - reduced to six on appeal - by FIFA’s ethics committee in 2015, before receiving a further suspension of six years and eight months in March 2021 for multiple breaches of FIFA’s Code of Ethics, including the articles entitled ‘duty of loyalty’, ‘conflicts of interest’ and ‘offering and accepting gifts or other benefits’.
It is why Blatter must surely see the irony in saying the World Cup has “lost its credibility”, when the bidding process to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments was overshadowed by allegations of corruption. More than half of the 22 members of FIFA’s Executive Committee, which decided the World Cup hosts, have since been handed punishments ranging from fines to lifetime bans from football.
It is why Blatter’s criticism of Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan lost some weight when, in another post, he said that FIFA has a “fiduciary responsibility to protect the global game”.
‘Fiduciary’ means to put someone else's interests ahead of your own, which doesn’t tally with the 2014 report by US attorney Michael Garcia into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes. Garcia stated the Executive Committee under Blatter had a culture of “expectation and entitlement” and that many members “displayed a disregard for ethical guidelines”.
The FIFA is not a private equity fund. It is an association with statutes, regulations, and a fiduciary responsibility to protect the global game. If you sell football's crown jewels to private investors, you also sell part of the game – especially its soul. Money matters, but it…July 31, 2026
It is also why FIFA should be embarrassed that they are being lectured by their former President, whose resignation in 2015 was supposed to represent a turning point.
As hard as it is to believe now, Infantino was seen as the man to restore FIFA’s reputation when he was elected in February 2016. Then-FA chairman Greg Dyke hailed Infantino as a “straightforward guy”, while David Gill, the former Manchester United chief executive who was Vice-President of FIFA at the time, called it a “good day for football”.
Meanwhile, Infantino said: “We’ll restore the image of FIFA and make sure everybody will be happy with what we do.”
Needless to say, it hasn’t worked out that way.
Among many unpopular decisions, we have seen the World Cup expanded to 48 teams (and potentially 64 in 2030), the 2030 competition awarded to three continents to smooth the way for Saudi Arabia to host in 2034, a 32-team summer Club World Cup with Infantino’s name engraved on the trophy, the creation of the FIFA Peace Prize in a desperate attempt to suck up to Trump, sky-high World Cup ticket prices and, of course, Infantino’s sell-off plan, which could cost him the presidency.
When you consider all of that, Blatter looks like the lesser of two evils - and that is why football should be embarrassed.
Even when FIFA’s reputation was in the gutter in 2015, many of the decisions that have happened on Infantino’s watch would have sounded ridiculous.
Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies. If a U.S. President intervenes with the FIFA President — and a player is suddenly cleared before a World Cup knockout match — the question is unavoidable: Quo…July 6, 2026
Yet before his World Cup investment plan blew up in his face, more than 200 of FIFA’s 211 member associations had backed Infantino for re-election, which shows how untouchable he had become.
Countries and confederations have since joined forces in a bid to remove him from office, but the fact they let so much slide beforehand doesn’t inspire confidence that football will be brought “back to its roots”, as Blatter apparently hopes.
It’s too late for that now - and Blatter must accept he helped create what football has become.
