Joseph Sepp Blatter
Joseph Sepp Blatter was born on the 10th March 1936 in the Swiss town of Visp, near the famous Matterhorn. He graduated from the Sion and St. Maurice colleges in Switzerland with a school-leaving (matric) certificate and then gained a degree as Bachelor of Business Administration and Economics from the Faculty of Law at Lausanne University in 1959.
Sports activities
- Active footballer from 1948 to 1971 (played for the Swiss amateur league in the top division)
- Member of the Board of Xamax Neuch?tel FC from 1970 to 1975
- Member of the Panathlon Club (society of sports managers)
- Since 1956 member of the Swiss Association of Sportswriters
- Since 1999 member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
On 8 June 1998 Joseph S. Blatter was elected as the successor to Dr. Jo?o Havelange (Brazil) as the eighth FIFA President. This victory at the 51st FIFA Ordinary Congress in Paris (France) elevated Joseph S. Blatter, who had already served FIFA in various positions for twenty-three years, onto the highest rank in international football.
Mr. Blatter began his professional career as Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in his native Switzerland and then became General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation (1964). He then pursued journalistic and public relations activities in the fields of sport and private industry. As Director of Sports Timing and Public Relations of Longines, he was involved in the organisation of the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games, acquiring his first taste of the international sports scene.
In the summer of 1975, as Director of Technical Development Programmes at FIFA, Mr. Blatter began to set former FIFA President Jo?o Havelange's projects into motion. It was the time when ideas for competition and educational programmes were germinating and the foundations were being laid for competitions in the under-20 and under-17 categories as well as women's and indoor (futsal) football, all of which are pillars of FIFA's worldwide activity.
In 1981 the Executive Committee of the world governing body designated the multilingual Blatter as the new General Secretary and in 1990 promoted him to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). A total of five World Cups were staged under his auspices (Spain in 1982, Mexico in 1986, Italy in 1990, USA in 1994 and France in 1998). At the same time he played a leading role in the negotiations for the television and marketing contracts and the modern commercialisation of the FIFA World Cup up to the year 2006 alongside his predecessor in the presidency, Jo?o Havelange.
At the end of March 1998 the direct support and the interest manifested by numerous national associations from all the confederations prompted him to stand at the 1998 FIFA Congress presidential election as their candidate. Joseph S. Blatter was re-elected for a second term on 29 May 2002 in Seoul. And on Thursday 31 May, Joseph S. Blatter was confirmed, by acclamation, in the position for a third term of office.
Page Created: 20 July 2010
