British press cheer Blatter's resignation from FIFA

Long staunch critics of FIFA's Sepp Blatter, British newspapers celebrated the Swiss official's resignation as president of football's governing body on their Wednesday front pages. "GOT HIM," roared The Sun's sport section, adding: "FIFA fatcat quits". "Downfall: Blatter walks away" was the front page of The Guardian, showing a large image of the 79-year-old walking towards a door and writing of "joy, disbelief and anger" at his exit. "It's taken a while but finally #BlatterGone" tweeted the Sunday Times, alongside a screengrab of its own 2014 front page investigation that claimed leaked documents showed Qatar paid officials to award it the 2022 World Cup. Many newspapers made the most of puns on the official's name: "Blatt's all folks" was the headline of the Star, The Daily Mirror chose "Blatt's yer lot", while The Independent's sister newspaper picked "Sent off". The Daily Telegraph declared "Good riddance" in its sports section, while its chief football correspondent Henry Winter described Blatter's resignation as "one of the most beautiful sights in football". "His legacy will stir only contempt," Winters wrote. "The man's a menace, a disgrace, a charlatan yet he is also the symptom as well as the cause of FIFA's culture of deceit and disdain." Others questioned whether the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar respectively would be reconsidered. "Russia and Qatar World Cups in doubt as Blatter forced out" was the headline of the Daily Telegraph. "Now let's turn up the heat on Qatar" read the back page of the Metro. Some tabloids have called for the World Cup to be given to England instead, which lost out to Russia to hold the 2018 tournament. The Times, which called for Blatter to leave in an editorial last week, said his resignation left the World Cup "in meltdown". "Sepp Blatter's decision to stand down as president of FIFA was long overdue," it wrote. "His fiefdom needs fundamental reform." Meanwhile a sketch in the Telegraph by cartoonist Matthew Pritchett took a lighter view on the scandal, showing one FIFA official complaining to another, "Football has ruined money".