Sepp Blatter pulls off biggest masterstroke of his long reign

Evening Standard

The mix of farce and politics that has marked the 13-year reign of Sepp Blatter as FIFA president has ensured again today that the Swiss will have another four years at the head of world football.

The farce came when the delegates from the 208 nations on the stage of the Congress were asked to test the voting system by answering the question of who won the World Cup last year.

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told them a billion people had watched the final: "You must have been among them," he said. Well apparently seven of FIFA's national associations were not because they pressed the wrong button.