Last Friday saw more news drop about FIFA that brought the inevitable conclusion just a bit closer to fruition. The Swiss Attorney General confirmed that they have opened an investigation on The Worst Sports Personality in the World (TM), Sepp Blatter, over a media rights contract he signed with unconfirmed human being Jack Warner concerning the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. To make the weekend even better for football fans all over the world, they're also investigating a "disloyalty payment" made to alleged good guy Michel Platini in 2011.

Today, Blatter stands firm that he is innocent.

Or, to quote someone he can probably sympathize with, "I'm not a crook."

Sure, dude, sure.

Let's take this apart and see just what is really happening and whether the Swiss government has found the silver bullet needed to put this undead abomination to rest.

First, those media rights.

FIFA sells their media rights for the World Cup to the confederations to resell to various media companies to help fun the confederation. That money should be used to host tournaments for national and club teams of all age ranges and genders. It's also used to fund referee training and a host of other activities. Of course those initial rights have to be sold for fair compensation for a host of legal and ethical reasons.

Do keep in mind that FIFA is headquartered in Zurich and is bound by Swiss law.

In 2005, Blatter sold the media rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) for US $600,000. Jack Warner was head of the CFU (and CONCACAF) at the time. He transferred those rights to his own personal company, free of charge (naturally) and sold them for somewhere in the neighborhood of US $20 million. That's roughly 30x what he paid for it.

Money that Warner pocketed, naturally (well, minus the 10 percent Chuck Blazer likely claimed because, well, Blazer got 10 percent of everything).

Now FIFA claims that they were supposed to receive a percentage of the profit and canceled their deal with the CFU in 2011 when they received no payment.

What is (allegedly) confirmed is that Blatter and Warner personally signed off this deal, which can be read here, courtesy of Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen. If true, this gives the Swiss authorities the crack in the aloofness of Blatter to bring him down. 

The biggest problem in bringing down Blatter is that he rarely gets his hands dirty and instead delegates responsibilities. It's a layer of armor that has protected Blatter over the past 17 years. If this contract can be confirmed, it'll be enough to remove him before the February presidential election.  

So what the heck is a "disloyalty payment"?

Well, no one really knows for sure but let's take a look at what is being described. The police are investigating a payment made from Blatter and FIFA to Platini in 2011 on some work the former player did from 1999 to 2002 as a contractor.

Ok, well that doesn't sound bad, so what's the issue?

Well, 2011 just so happened to be the previous FIFA presidential election cycle when, infamously, Mohaamed bin Hammam was kicked out for attempting to bribe CFU leaders via Jack Warner. That series of events allowed Blatter to rid himself of a powerful rival, as well as a few dangerous allies in the form of Warner and Blazer. That left only one challenger to Blatter during the election.

Michel Platini.

Some background: Platini has long been groomed to take over for Blatter once the latter stepped down. He was set to do so for the 2011 election cycle so naturally Platini did a lot of talking about how he was ready to serve as FIFA President. Such was their connection that Platini said he'd never run against his mentor.

So when Blatter said he would run, rumors started coming out that Platini would run against him for breaking his promise. One turn deserves another, right? Just as quickly as those rumors appeared, they were quashed when Platini "graciously" stepped down to allow Blatter to run.

This same scene played out during the 2015 cycle.

It's around the time Platini stepped down that he received the US $2 million payment for work done nine years earlier.

Coincidence?

Blatter is very fond of handling his problems with money, taking money from FIFA's "reserve" (of over US $1 billion) to reward various federations and officials for backing him. This would just be another in a long line of examples.

After the announcement that Jerome Valcke was suspended pending an investigation by Swiss authorities, and the FIFA Ethics Committee, this is not something the embattled organization is ready to handle. It's also no coincidence about the timing of this event. The world press was on hand to cover a press conference after an Executive Committee meeting, so were readily available to cover Blatter's investigation instead.

Despite Blatter suffering the same fate, he has yet to be suspended and fans shouldn't hold their breath on that happening. Blatter holds all together too much power and has spent the last several months securing his power and destroying any evidence that may implicate him. (That black smoke doesn't mean a new president hasn't been elected. Well, now that this writer think's about it....)

As the ground continues to fall out from underneath him, and both the US and Swiss attorney generals saying they are just scratching the surfaces of their respective investigations, it's only a matter of time before Blatter exits stage right.

Hopefully in handcuffs.