FIFA president addresses organization's corruption inquiry

Sepp Blatter
(Image credit: Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images)

FIFA President Sepp Blatter spoke publicly about the organization's corruption scandal for the first time at the organization's annual congress in Zurich on Thursday, the New York Times reports. The U.S. Department of Justice indicted several FIFA members Wednesday, including two vice presidents.

Blatter was not implicated in the report, but said he knows soccer fans hold him responsible "for the actions and reputation of the global football community."

"We, or I, cannot monitor everyone all of the time," Blatter continued. "If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it. But it must also fall to me to be responsible for the reputation of our entire organization, and to find a way to fix things."

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Blatter said he still plans to run for re-election.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.