It comes as perhaps no surprise that Sepp Blatter, after decades as the head of world football, has become immune to the threat of crisis.
Facing the biggest scandal in FIFA’s 107-year history, the Swiss bureaucrat plans to ride this one out, like he has so many before, and win a fourth presidential term on Wednesday.

“Crisis? What is a crisis?’’ he memorably asked on Monday at a packed FIFA news conference where he attempted to weather the storm of recent bribery allegations. “We are not in a crisis. We are only in some difficulties.’’

But Blatter was clearly rattled. So often in control, displaying an enigmatic smile in the face of the toughest adversity, he lost his cool, scolding reporters not to treat his house “like a bazaar.’’

He moved to leave the platform, hesitated, then returned. Refused to answer, then came back to answer. It was the exception to the rule that highlights what an operator, schmoozer and diplomat Blatter has been ever since he started working for FIFA in 1975.

Behind closed doors, he has proved a ferocious force that has kept him at the helm of FIFA for 13 years and extended the boundaries of the World Cup to include South Africa last year and Qatar in 2022.

Blatter has made sure FIFA is overseeing a $4.19 billion budget in a four-year World Cup span and, under him, the world’s most popular sport has political clout on a par with the International Olympic Committee.

And a decade after the Olympic movement went through a cathartic bribery scandal linked to the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, much the same is happening at FIFA.

And this is where his remaining challenge lies. Blatter’s meeting with IOC President Jacques Rogge at the opening ceremony of the FIFA congress on Tuesday might have been a reminder of what is at stake – handle the crisis well and you survive, like the IOC did. Let it get further out of hand, and there is no knowing what will happen.