Like his predecessor Havelange, Blatter built his power base in FIFA by increasing the influence of numerous African and Asian countries in world football through the expansion of participating teams in various FIFA tournaments, culminating in the highly controversial awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a Gulf oil state of 3,000,000 people with little footballing culture.

[7] On 24 March 2021, he received a second ban for six years and was fined the amount of CHF 1,000,000 by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments.

Blatter has had a long and varied career, including posts such as head of public relations for the tourist board of his native canton, as well as general secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation.

These include the claim that Latin American countries would applaud John Terry for having an extramarital affair, and that on-field racism could be corrected with a handshake, among others.

[18] He also drew criticism at the 2014 FIFA World Cup seeding, when he interrupted a "one-minute silence" for former South-African president Nelson Mandela, who died the day before, after eleven seconds.

Michael van Praag, the chairman of the Royal Dutch Football Association, called his behavior "preposterous" and expressed the hope Blatter would not be reelected in 2015.

[32] Blatter was criticized in 2007 and 2008 for trying to change European Union employment law regarding the number of foreign players that football clubs could field at any one time.

Blatter has often referred to the English Premier League as one of the major problems in football and used it as an example, due to the influence of foreign players, coaches and owners in the top teams.

[33][34][35][36][37] It was reported that Blatter had "cut an unofficial deal with UEFA head Michel Platini" to ensure Europe would receive the 2018 World Cup, such that if the non-European bids did not withdraw from 2018 "they will find themselves frozen out and not given any backing by the FIFA High Command, damaging their chances of being serious contenders for the second tournament.

The criticism attracted by Blatter's refusal to allow goal-line technology or video replays intensified following the controversial Frank Lampard disallowed goal in the match between England and Germany on 27 June 2010.

[42] Two days later, Blatter stated that he deplored the "evident referee mistakes" in the England v Germany and Mexico v Argentina matches, and apologised to the English Football Association and the Mexican Football Federation (the two organizations directly concerned by the referees' mistakes), acknowledging that Lampard had indeed scored against Germany and that Tévez's goal against Mexico had been scored from an offside position.

The ChangeFIFA organisation, on 29 March 2011, endorsed former Chilean defender and for three years running South American Footballer of the Year Elías Figueroa as candidate for the presidency, urging national federations to nominate him,[45] but, subsequently, Figueroa decided not to accept the nomination, stating that "in such a short period of time" he could not develop a case "worthy of the magnitude and importance of such a distinguished job"[45] The vote took place at the 61st FIFA Congress in Zurich.

[50][51] Blatter received criticism for not postponing his 2011 election in which his term as FIFA President was extended through 2015, despite the fact that all other candidates for the role had been suspended or withdrew.

Amidst internal divisions, FIFA's secretary-general Blatter's deputy and former protégé Michel Zen-Ruffinen drew up a 30-page dossier outlining allegations of financial mismanagement within the organisation.

[52][53] The dossier alleged that the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL had led to losses of up to 100 million US dollars under Blatter's management.

The allegations were backed by Johansson,[54] and the dossier was handed to the Swiss authorities, but they cleared Blatter of any wrongdoing and FIFA had to pay all the costs.

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.

A week before FIFA's ethics committee announced its findings, 84-year-old Leoz had resigned from his post as president of the South American Football Confederation, citing "health reasons".

[81] On 24 March 2021, he received a second ban for six years and was fined the amount of CHF 1,000,000 by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments.

[8] On 2 November 2021, Blatter was formally charged by Swiss authorities for fraud and falsifying documents in connection with the improper payments to Platini.

Blatter noted that when he had started working in FIFA, the organization was poor and was not the powerhouse it is today and admits he played a major role in the commercialisation of football, which has led to an increase in non-sports sponsors.

Blatter also criticised the awarding of the 2030 FIFA World Cup to six countries in three continents (Argentina, Morocco, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay), stating the tournament would lose its identity.

[85][86][87] In November 2017, American goalkeeper Hope Solo accused Blatter of sexual assault at the FIFA Ballon d'Or awards in 2013.

During an interview with the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, Solo stated she "had Sepp Blatter grab my ass" just before the two presented an award together to Abby Wambach.

"[90] Blatter has been the recipient of numerous awards, medals, honorary degrees, and citizenships from nation states, sport governing bodies, special interest groups, universities and cities.