FIFA president Sepp Blatter, whose June 2 resignation caused HBO’s Last Week Tonight host John Oliver to chug a Bud Light Lime on air in fulfillment of a promise, has apparently gone back on his word. According to Swiss newspaper Blick, Blatter hinted that he could run for the FIFA presidency in December.
“Only those who know the past can understand the present and shape the future,” Blatter said at a function at a new FIFA museum in Zurich, according to Blick. “I have not resigned, but made my mandate available at an extraordinary congress.”
That last part refers to Blatter’s comments on June 2 when he said he would “lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective congress,” where he would no longer be a candidate. It has been expected that the new vote would occur sometime in December.
FIFA is slated to meet on July 22 to determine the exact date of the election. According to CNN, a FIFA spokesperson told the network that Blatter will not be among the candidates and that his comments only meant that he intended to remain FIFA president until the new elections.
Blatter has been at the center of a massive corruption scandal at the soccer body. After a series of raids by U.S. authorities in Switzerland, Blatter bowed to pressure and said he would step down as FIFA chief just days after he was re-elected to a fifth consecutive term. But the former FIFA chief has been known to go back on his word. According to CNN, he said after he was elected to his fourth term in 2011 that it would be his last. He ran again in 2015.
Oliver, who has been an outspoken critic of FIFA and Blatter, had promised on air that he would drink a Bud Light (which he previously compared to a puddle underneath a dumpster at a Long John Silver fast food restaurant), take a bite out of every item on McDonald’s $1 Menu and wear a particularly outrageous line of Adidas sneakers (all FIFA sponsors) if they would play a role in Blatter’s ouster. While neither of the sponsors actually forced Blatter to resign, Oliver fulfilled his promise during the June 7 broadcast of the show.* to check*
