FIFA's Future After 'Lame Duck' Blatter Unclear

Sepp Blatter's astounding resignation invites a myriad of questions, and will usher in months of revelations, controversy, speculation and strife.

"A brilliant day for football," declared FA chairman Greg Dyke, his sentiments echoed by dozens of high-profile figures in the sport.

Well yes, as far it goes.

But this is partly euphoria caused as much by the shock of the announcement as by its substance.

One of the more perspicacious reactions came from Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany: "Blatter wasn't sole (sic) responsible, more have to follow. Transparency and voting reform, then we move on and bring back ethics."

In other words, Blatter's departure means little unless it leads to fundamental reforms of an organisation besmirched by corruption, and so unwieldy that it cannot stage a new presidential election before December at the earliest.

Until then, Blatter intends to stay on in caretaker charge. Is that tenable? A 79-year old discredited lame duck?

Why has he gone? Did he learn something would become public that would make his presidency unsustainable?

Swiss investigators were quick to stress he is not under investigation. There was no immediate comment from the FBI, but stories circulating in the US suggested he could be on that side of the Atlantic.

Will the World Cup Finals still be staged in Russia in 2018 and Qatar four years later?

The Swiss are looking into both bids, but Simon Johnson from England's failed 2018 attempt believes it is too late to take the contest away from Russia, whether or not its bid was tainted.

2022 is a different matter. With Blatter, the World Cup stays in Qatar. Without him? As with so much else, what emerges from the various investigations is key.

Will we now get to see the report by FIFA's own ethics chief Michael Garcia, which last autumn was swept under the organisation’s plush Zurich carpets?

If individuals are convicted, how loudly will they sing?

And underlying it all, who is next? Who wants to be FIFA's Jacques Rogge? Will football react as successfully as the Olympic movement did to the Salt Lake City scandal of 2002?

Early favourite is Michel Platini, boss of European governing body UEFA. But if Blatter did something good, it was to slide football's power base away from Europe, and the Frenchman would face plenty of opponents.

The identity of the successor will tell us much.

Football needs to see this not as a door closing - on Blatter - but as a window opening, an opportunity to banish a noxious stench and make the game beautiful again.

It's meant to be about the players, the contest and the fans, not the politics and the money.