FIFA President’s Resignation Puts World Soccer on Uncharted Grounds

With the resignation of FIFA president Sepp Blatter amid a snowballing corruption scandal that has ensnared more than a half dozen officials, world soccer lurched into uncharted territory Tuesday.

Re-elected FIFA President Sepp Blatter arrives for a news conference after an extraordinary Executive Committee meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, May 30, 2015.

Blatter’s announcement, which came just days after he was re-elected head of the soccer's international governing organization, stunned the sporting world. It already had been reeling from the indictments unveiled last week by U.S. prosecutors.
Reaction ranged from restrained joy to smug satisfaction Tuesday as Blatter’s name and hashtags such as #BlatterOut rocketed to the top of Twitter and Facebook.
A number of commentators also questioned whether FIFA’s eyebrow-raising decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar might be open for discussion. Swiss authorities last week announced they were conducting a separate criminal investigation into how those sites were chosen.
"Change at the very top of FIFA is the necessary first step in delivering real reform of the organization," said Greg Dyke, head of Britain’s Football Association, which oversees the world’s wealthiest soccer league, the Premier League.
In comments later to The Guardian, Dyke went even further.