Joshua Robinson

And this is how they were spending all of their important meetings for discussing the growth of the game and FIFA development.

— I mean, I'm arriving as people are being walked out by Swiss police, who have been empowered by the FBI and the DOJ to carry out these warrants and arrest these people on various charges of wire fraud, various corruption charges.

And what emerges later and grabs all the headlines is they're charged with RICO.

It was truly one of the most remarkable days in the history of the organization and one of the most remarkable days I've ever had in journalism.

I often think back to a joke I heard that afternoon from the former FIFA head of communications who had quite a, you know, casual view of the whole thing.

And the joke went like this.

The president of FIFA, the secretary general, and the head of communications are in a car.

Who's driving?

There you go.

That opened a can of worms where subsequent scandals began to emerge.

And every piece of dirty laundry suddenly was out in the open.

Yeah.

The organization is on fire, effectively.

And the pressure is finally mounted.

And at that point, he steps down.

From the moment of the arrest, I had been trying to pursue an interview with him.

And finally, after he steps down that December, the contact I'd been working through calls me one evening and says, the president will see you tomorrow morning.

And so the next morning, I put on a tie and jacket and went up to this hotel in the hills above Zurich where Blatter was ready to hold court.

And he was the only person in this lobby, a very different hotel lobby from the Borlac.

And we met, we spoke in French for two hours.