任職5天國際足聯主席布拉特宣布辭職

任職5天國際足聯主席布拉特宣布辭職

　　國際足聯主席布拉特剛剛獲選連任就宣布辭職。《紐約時報》指出，原因是他擔心在未來受到美國關于貪污的調查。

　　Sepp Blatter, who led world soccer’s governing body for 17 years and who was regarded as one of the most powerful people in global sports, said Tuesday that he would resign his position, making his announcement in Zurich even as law enforcement officials in the United States confirmed that he was a focus of a federal corruption investigation.

　　Mr. Blatter had for days tried to distance himself from the controversy, but several United States officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that in their efforts to build a case against Mr. Blatter they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organization.

　　賽普·布拉特領導了世界足球管理機構17年之久。他被認為是全球體育界最有權勢的人之一。周二，就在美國執法人員確認他是聯邦貪污調查的重點對象之際，布拉特在蘇黎世宣布辭職，。

　　多日以來，布拉特試圖讓自己遠離爭議，但一些匿名的美國官員表示，希望和被起訴的和想要升官的國際足聯官員合作，以圖針對布拉特立案。

　　Mr. Blatter’s resignation speech, which he delivered in French to a mostly empty room at FIFA headquarters, served as a stunning coda to a dramatic sequence of events that began last Wednesday with a police raid at a five-star hotel, where seven soccer officials were arrested and held for extradition to the United States on corruption charges.

　　A high-ranking soccer official said Mr. Blatter had been advised by his legal counsel that continuing in his current position could make defending him against possible future prosecution more difficult.

　　The soccer official added that pressure on Mr. Blatter from soccer’s corporate partners, as well as from various FIFA members, increased considerably over the weekend as itbecame clear that the Justice Department indictment was not just looking at corruption within Concacaf, the regional governing body overseeing soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

　　上周三，警方突然搜捕了一家五星級酒店，逮捕了7名足球官員。他們受到貪污指控，會被引渡給美國。以此事為開端的一系列戲劇性事件有一個令人震驚的尾聲：布拉特用法語在幾乎沒人的國際足聯總部發表了辭職演說。

　　一名足球高官稱，布拉特的法律顧問建議，如果布拉特繼續擔任現有職務，在未來的起訴中為他辯護會變得更加困難。

　　這名足球官員還補充道，上周末以來，隨著美國司法部的起訴顯然將不局限于中北美及加勒比海足協，布拉特受到的來自足球合作伙伴和多個國際足聯成員的壓力顯著增加。