FIFA Spokesman Steps Down After Joking About Blatter Being Arrested

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/world/europe/fifa-spokesman-steps-down-after-joking-about-blatter-being-arrested.html

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Suggesting once again that the FIFA saga might be beyond parody, the chief spokesman for world soccer’s governing body stepped down on Thursday, amid speculation that he was forced out for joking on Swiss television about the possible arrest of President Sepp Blatter.

The spokesman, Walter De Gregorio, “has decided to relinquish his office with immediate effect,” according to a statement released by the organization on Thursday.

Mr. Blatter was not mentioned in the brief press release, but it did include words of praise for the communications director from FIFA’s secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, who also featured in the joke Mr. De Gregorio told during an appearance Monday night on the Swiss channel SRF.

Asked if he had a favorite joke about his organization, Mr. De Gregorio said: “FIFA President Sepp Blatter, his director of communications and the general secretary are sitting in a car – who is driving?”

Stumped, the talk show host Roger Schawinski asked, “And the answer is?”

“The police,” Mr. De Gregorio replied.

While no one at FIFA said on the record that the joke was the catalyst for Mr. De Gregorio’s departure, Richard Conway of BBC News reported that “he was asked to leave by president Sepp Blatter.” According to Mr. Conway, who did not name his source, the spokesman had confronted his boss after a public relations executive who advises Mr. Blatter, Klaus J. Stöhlker, told a Swiss reporter that Mr. De Gregorio was to blame for the president’s poor image.

Like Mr. Blatter, who announced last week that he would be stepping down later this year, Mr. De Gregorio plans to remain on as a consultant until the end of the year.

Mathieu von Rohr, the deputy foreign editor of Der Spiegel, suggested on Twitter that the resignation could well do more harm than good to FIFA’s reputation.

The incident comes two weeks after a former vice president of FIFA, Jack Warner, mistakenly cited a satirical Onion report on the corruption investigation in his own defense.