Editing Sepp Blatter (section)

=== 2013 FIFA Ethics Committee investigation ===
On 29 April 2013, FIFA's Ethics Committee concluded its investigation into allegations of illegal payments to FIFA officials from the organisation's former marketing partner [[International Sports and Leisure]] (ISL), which went bankrupt in 2001,<ref>[https://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/30/sport/football/blatter-fifa-havelange-bribery-football/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 "FIFA 'bribe' officials escape punishment"] , CNN, 30 April 2013</ref> and published its report.<ref name=eckert>[https://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/footballgovernance/02/06/60/80/islreporteckert29.04.13e.pdf  Statement of the Chairman of the FIFA Adjudicatory Chamber, Hans-Joachim Eckert, on the examination of the ISL case] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201234242/http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/footballgovernance/02/06/60/80/islreporteckert29.04.13e.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/footballgovernance/02/06/60/80/islreporteckert29.04.13e.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |date=1 December 2016 }}, FIFA, 29 April 2013</ref>

FIFA president Sepp Blatter was cleared of any misconduct, but his predecessor, Brazilian [[João Havelange]], resigned as FIFA's honorary president<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/apr/30/joao-havelange-resigns-fifa "João Havelange resigns as Fifa honorary president over 'bribes'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729113147/https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/apr/30/joao-havelange-resigns-fifa |date=29 July 2016 }}. ''[[The Guardian]]'', 30 April 2013</ref> over his part in the scandal, since Havelange along with former FIFA Executive Committee members [[Ricardo Teixeira]] and Dr. [[Nicolás Leoz]] were found to have accepted illegal payments between 1992 and May 2000. A week before FIFA's ethics committee announced its findings, 84-year-old Leoz had resigned from his post as president of the [[South American Football Confederation]], citing "health reasons".<ref>[http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-conmebol-idUKBRE93T16920130430 "Figueredo officially succeeds Leoz as FIFA ethics probe revealed"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130182719/https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-conmebol-idUKBRE93T16920130430 |date=30 November 2018 }}, [[Reuters]], 30 April 2013</ref>

Blatter, in a statement, "note[d] with satisfaction" that the report "confirms that 'President Blatter's conduct could not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules'." He added he has "no doubt that FIFA, thanks to the governance reform process that [Blatter] proposed now has the mechanisms and means to ensure that such an issue does not happen again", though admitting that the scandal "has caused untold damage to the reputation of [FIFA]."<ref>[https://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/president/news/newsid=2066106/index.html "Reaction from Joseph S. Blatter on the report on the ISL case"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318012332/http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/president/news/newsid=2066106/index.html |date=18 March 2015 }}, statement issued on FIFA's website, 30 April 2013</ref>