ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on values, aspirations and ambitions of the most prominent Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) presidents over the second half of the twentieth century repay consideration and illuminate any understanding of the consolidation and expansion of FIFA's place in world culture and politics, and four in particular – Jules Rimet, Stanley Rous, Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter. Rous was preceded as FIFA president by Belgian Rodolphe Seeldrayers and fellow Englishman Arthur Drewry. 'As the supreme leader of FIFA, the President and his rights and duties are extensively dealt with in the FIFA Statutes'. Blatter soon reshuffled the FIFA committees, too, giving his supporters key positions but also making sure that potential opponents were kept inside the FIFA family. As FIFA has got richer since it bordered on bankruptcy in 2002, it has generated and experienced escalating crises of credibility and ethics.
