June 1, 2015

Watch John Oliver Issue a Scathing Takedown of FIFA’s “Swiss Demon” President


One very prominent name was missing among the several high-ranking FIFA officials indicted on corruption and bribery charges last week. That person, of course, was FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who as John Oliver described on the latest “Last Week Tonight,” has “left a trail of devastation” under his watch as the organization’s president.

“No decision Blatter has overseen is more questionable than the 2022 World Cup being awarded to Qatar, because not only will the conditions be terrible to play in, but the number of migrant workers that have died in Qatar since the cup was announced has been staggering,” Oliver said.

Despite the new charges and Blatter’s scandal-ridden reputation, he was actually reelected as president for a fifth term on Friday.

“To truly kill a snake, you must cut off its head, or in this case its asshole,” Oliver explained. Without Blatter’s indictment, the host says no truly significant reforms can be made for the world’s favorite sport.

Watch Oliver make a plea to both U.S. officials and FIFA’s long list of powerful sponsors to remove Blatter as president, once and for all:

UPDATE: Tuesday, June 2, 2015: Blatter has resigned. Oliver has sent the “one perfect tweet” of this news cycle.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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