Breaking through the carapace of indifference and contempt that has passed for football governance at Fifa required action from outside football’s ruling order. If Blatter hangs on, deposing him will require the efforts of outside agencies; the herculean task of cleaning up Fifa will be no different. - David Goldblatt, The Guardian
Those discredited Blatter cronies at the Confederation of African Football, for instance, are arrogant enough to think a World Cup could go ahead without Europe. But the sponsors wouldn't fall for it. Those with kit and soft drinks and lifestyles to sell know where the money is. Take the European market away and the World Cup is dead commercially. And if the World Cup dies in 2018 it takes Blatter with it. - Martin Samuel, Daily Mail
An emergency requires a statesman, a role to which he proved on Thursday sadly ill-suited. To be deserving of your trust he needed to declare on that Zurich stage that he was contrite, that he was shaken, that he could not be absolved of responsibility for the corruption that has become entrenched under his stewardship. Instead, he took the cowardly route of evasion, claiming in his lust for re-election that not one example of the egregious behaviour by his own executives was anything to do with him. - an open letter to Fifa members from Daily Telegraph Sport
Loretta Lynch, America’s first black woman attorney-general, is now world famous. There could be no finer American export: her story and her role are the stuff of the American dream and the product of American political culture. Justin Webb, The Times
Politicians have decided that they don't need us any more. They are connecting directly with the voters. And if our papers can't do better than clumsy photoshopping, character assassinations and propaganda, readers will soon decide that they don't need us either. Editor's blog: We're giving the enemy more ammunition