2015: Eyewitness accounts of the year’s most defining moments.From Paris to the refugee crisis, and from Pluto to that flying weasel, these pictures recall the year’s most memorable events. Those closest to the action tell their stories.
Sepp Blatter is showered with cash
20 July: the Fifa president looks uncomfortable as comedian Simon Brodkin throws dollar bills at him during a press conference
Andrew Jennings, corruption investigator I haven’t been welcome at a Fifa press conference since 2003, but I have been watching Fifa for about 15 years. [At a press conference in 2002, Jennings asked Blatter if he’d ever taken a bribe. Since then he has been at the heart of the investigations into the organisation, and his reporting helped prompt the FBI to investigate.]
It hasn’t been a surprise – I have been talking to the FBI since 2009 – it was a question of how long they would take. But it’s an organised crime squad from the FBI, it is very large, and they are taking their time.
The Swiss are taking their time, too. They are working through nine terabytes of data that they found at the Fifa headquarters, so they have plenty of information.
It’s inconvenient for daily journalists who want a quick turnaround, but the investigators will complete their work. These individual visuals don’t make much difference. Fifa is dead. Some say it will affect the game, but I don’t think so. Fifa is just the superstructure. Kids aren’t going to stop playing football.
Still, this is a good picture, an important picture, because it says it all. It’s very near to the truth and it could become Blatter’s defining image. It wasn’t even real money. Blatter had false money thrown at him and he looked most discommoded. He ended the press conference, opened the door and walked out. It’s as fair a picture as you could have. There’s not much more to it, he’s just a shit.
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