Blatter 70th on world’s most powerful list
FIFA president Sepp Blatter was ranked 70th by Forbes on its list of the world’s 72 most powerful people, released on Wednesday.
Blatter was the lone elected sports official to be included on the list. Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama were voted first and second most powerful, respectively, in the ranking.
Blatter announced earlier this year that he would seek reelection for an unprecedented fifth term in May 2015. Former FIFA international relations director Jerome Champagne is the only other person to say he will stand.
Blatter first joined FIFA in 1975 and took over the presidency from Joao Havelange in 1998. He was reelected unopposed in 2011 after his rival Mohamed bin Hammam withdrew.
The Forbes list includes several business owners who have stakes in major football clubs.
Mexico Telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu, whose companies have holdings in the Mexican League, was ranked 14th. Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is related to Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour, was ranked 37th, while Martin Winterkorn, ranked 58th, is the chair of the Volkswagen Group, which owns Bundesliga club Wolfsburg. He is on the supervisory board for Bayern Munich. Alisher Usmanov, a major stakeholder in Arsenal, was ranked 61st.
Forbes said the annual ranking is based on voting by a panel of its editors and takes into account things like financial resources, scope and use of power, and the number of people they impact.
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