Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter was born on 10 March 1936, in Visp, Valais Switzerland. He has been the controversial President of FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) since 1998, and as of September 2015, is under investigation by Swiss authorities for alleged ‘mismanagement and misappropriation’.
So just how rich is Sepp Blatter? Most authoritative sources estimate that Sepp has a net worth of $20 million, accumulated not only during his tenure as President of FIFA where his current salary is reputedly between $1 million per annum (stated by Blatter himself) and $1.5 million, but also from previous public and private positions that he has held.
Sepp Blatter Net Worth $20 Million
Sepp Blatter graduated from the University of Lausanne in 1959 with a degree in economics and business. His employed positions have included Head of PR for the Tourist Board of Valais, and then general secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation. He worked for the Longines company as director of sports timing, in which position he was involved in the organisation of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympic Games, and the Montreal Summer Olympics in 1976. All these positions added steadily if not necessarily spectacularly to Sepp Blatter’s net worth.
Of little public knowledge is that in the 1970s, Blatter was president of the World Society of Suspenders, which actually tried to persuade women not to wear pantyhose/tights, but persist with suspender belts and stockings – for what reason is not known!
In 1975, Sepp Blatter became the technical director of FIFA, a position he held until 1981. From 1981 until 1998, he served as secretary general of FIFA, under the presidency of Joao Havelange, whom he was then elected to succeed, defeating incumbent UEFA president Lennart Johansson, amid the first accusations of corruption in voting practice. He was subsequently re-elected unopposed in 2002, and then again in 2007 although curiously only 66 of the 207 national association delegates voted for him.
Amid a series of accusations of mismanagement, bribery and coercion relating to promises of World Cup hosting venues, Blatter was again re-elected in 2011, eventually unopposed. The machinations behind these apparent political decisions on the part of continental federations and individual national associations inevitably lead to suspicions of bribery and coercion.
In May 2015, shortly before the next scheduled election for the FIFA Presidency, accusations of corruption against 14 named FIFA executive members were levelled by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, amounting to money laundering and fraud, matters about which Blatter claimed to know nothing. In the election, Sepp Blatter did not achieve a majority, but gained more votes than his only opponent, Prince Ali Bin Hussein, who subsequently withdrew before the required second ballot leaving Blatter as the winner. However, a week later, Blatter announced that he would relinquish the presidency as soon as a FIFA congress could be organised to elect a successor, currently scheduled for early 2016.
In September 2015, Sepp Blatter was notified of Swiss authorities and FIFA’s ethics committee investigations concerning his alleged ‘disloyal payment’ to former UEFA President Michel Platini some years earlier. The world awaits developments with considerable interest.
Regardless of allegations and suspicions levelled at him, Sepp Blatter has consistently mounted a strong charitable push for the rights of children around the world. Thanks to this effort, he was honoured with the “Global Award for Peace” which was presented to him by the International Amateur Athletic Association.
In his personal life, Sepp Blatter was firstly married to Liliane Biner, with whom he has a daughter. He was then married to Barbara Kaser from 1981 until her death following complicated surgery in 1991. Sepp then dated Ilona Boguska from 1995-2002, before marrying for the third time, to Graziella Bianca(2002-04), after which he was again in a relationship with Boguska until apparently finally separating in 2009.