Sepp Blatter Resigns FIFA Post | Media Training
After practically proclaiming himself FIFA Leader for Life just last week, Sepp Blatter resigned earlier this week.
What happened? After all, we’ve been told over and over that Blatter ran FIFA like a dictatorship and was not subject to the whims of public opinion.
Apparently, there is a difference between acting like a dictator and actually being a dictator, like in North Korea. As it turns out, Blatter was still vulnerable to public opinion, because public opinion shapes the feelings of his sponsors, board of directors, and other financial and institutional supporters. At some point, if everyone in the world thinks you are a corrupt evil dictator, it’s very hard to hold onto power unless you truly have the dictatorial powers of making your enemies disappear, permanently. And Blatter does not have those powers.
Blatter was able to hang on for years–long after many observers concluded he was corrupt and that he ran a corrupt organization. But this can only last so long.
In the modern media-connected world, if you are in a leadership position of a major organization with a huge international organization following, you have to maintain your reputation with the public. That means every charge leveled against you, not just from the courts, but from the news media, must be answered.
If you fail to answer the charges, you can get away with it for a short while, or even for 17 years, as in the case of Sepp Blatter, but it will eventually catch up to you.
TJ Walker is president of Media Training Worldwide. You can find his online training courses here. https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/online-training.html