After Fifa President Sepp Blatter announced he would step down in a hastily arranged press conference in Zurich, amid ongoing criminal probes in the US and Switzerland into allegations of corruption – ABC News reported that Blatter himself was under investigation –  discussion has turned to who might replace him and what direction world football’s governing body might now take.

Dave Zirin at The Nation writes that the 79-year-old Blatter was “pompous, bizarre, and off-key to the last breath,” and because he “took no questions and gave no concrete reasons for his departure [he made] speculation the order of the day.”

World Cup sponsors welcomed the move. Coca Cola said it was a “positive step” and would help Fifa “transform itself rapidly into a much-needed 21st Century structure and institution.” Visa, meanwhile, issued this forceful statement:

Amid the general euphoria among football fans worldwide, there is a general realization that, regardless of why Blatter chose to go now, there is significant work to do to to restore Fifa’s reputation.

Simon Kuper at the FT writes on why Blatter’s departure will not, in itself, cure Fifa’s ills, while David Goldblatt at The Guardian says it’s “time to clean out the stables.”

Perhaps he [Blatter] knows that the Swiss and US attorney general’s office investigations will eventually reach him. Perhaps he really is as weary and forlorn as he appeared at the lectern and the thought of battles to come no longer appeals. Perhaps we should take him at his word, that he knows that Fifa just cannot continue as it has been and that the prerequisite of any change is his departure. Either way we should salute the work and words of investigative journalists (take a bow, Andrew Jennings), Fifa whistleblowers, political activists and critics and judicial agencies that have forced him and the organisation to this point.

There is also renewed speculation about the fate of the next two World Cup tournaments – Russia in 2018 and – particularly – Qatar in 2022.

Dave Wetzel at Yahoo Sports writes:

The entire thing is reprehensible. It’s almost unfathomable. Thousands of the most disadvantaged people on Earth will die to build a pointless playground for the most advantaged people on Earth.

It’s something out of the Middle Ages.

It’s Sepp Blatter’s FIFA taken to its ultimately awful conclusion.

So end it. No more Qatar. If it can be proven the bid was fixed, even better, but regardless this shouldn’t be anything that FIFA, soccer fans or, most pointedly, corporate sponsors should condone.

Qatar isn’t ready to be the world’s host. Not when this is how it builds the house.

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* POLITICS * The Senate passed the USA Freedom Act, a measure scaling back the US government’s sweeping surveillance of citizens’ phone records. 

Earlier, former NSA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden told an Amnesty International event that becoming an “international fugitive” had been worth it because of the advantages in terms of public knowledge.

“I think the most liberating thing about burning your life to the ground, and becoming an international fugitive, or so I’m told, is that you no longer have to worry about tomorrow, you think about today,” he said. For me that’s been a great experience, I’m actually quite grateful for it.

Unable to answer where he saw himself in five years he added: “I’ve applied for asylum in 21 different countries, including western Europe, I’m still waiting for them to get back to me.”

Legislative focus is now shifting to the fight over President Obama’s trade agenda, which is set to come to the House next week.

The Washington Post has a substantial long read on the growth of the Clinton Foundation and the former President’s role in convening the wealthy and influential.

For Clinton, the foundation had re-created many of the things he loved about the presidency — cheering crowds, an army of aides and a resonant sense that he was doing good on a global scale.

Even better, in this job, there were no foreign crises to derail his plans. And no meddling Republicans. In fact, the foundation drew contributions from some who were once Clinton’s most bitter GOP enemies, including Newsmax chief executive Christopher Ruddy and conservative mega-
donor Richard Mellon Scaife.

There was also no date when the ride had to end.

The grassroots campaign to draft Elizabeth Warren to run for President officially acknowledged defeat.

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* WORLD * A resolution to the Greek debt crisis could move closer on Wednesday, when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras meets with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels to discuss a potential agreement drawn up on Tuesday by the country’s creditors. Reuters reports:

The chairman of euro zone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem… said there were growing indications that Greece wanted a deal, but that required the Greek government to tell its voters the truth, that it will not be able to deliver on all its election promises.

“There are signs that Greece and Tsipras are motivated to achieve a breakthrough,” Dijsselbloem told RTL Nieuws. “We aren’t far enough along and time is pressing.”

“The bottom line is that we are not going to meet them halfway,” he said. “The package as a whole must make sense in budgetary terms.”

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* SPORTS * In non-Blatter news, the NHL’s Stanley Cup Final series starts on Wednesday between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks, who are looking to win the trophy for the sixth time – and their third trophy in the past six years.

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Finally, the British political world was stunned by the sudden death at the appallingly young age of 55 of Charles Kennedy, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats. Parliament will pay tribute to Kennedy at a dedicated session on Wednesday, following PMQs.

If you read only one thing about him, make it this wonderful appreciation by his friend, Tony Blair’s former press secretary Alastair Campbell, who calls Kennedy “a lovely man and a highly talented politician.” He writes:

He was great company, sober or drinking. He had a fine political mind and a real commitment to public service. He was not bitter about his ousting as leader and nor, though he disagreed often with what his party did in coalition with the Tories, did he ever wander down the rentaquote oppositionitis route. He was a man of real talent and real principle.

(BBC)