From St. Pauls to FIFA and back: Wolfi Resch's strange story

Wolfgang Resch, what do the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin have to do with your now former job at FIFA? Well, actually a lot. As a freelance editor for the “Dolomites”, I wrote a lot about football and ice hockey when I was at school. When the Winter Olympics took place in Turin in 2006, Italians with good ice hockey knowledge were in short supply. One thing led to another: I worked as a press officer in Turin, built up a network, made many acquaintances, thanks to whom I came to various other major sporting events such as the Asian Games in Doha or the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. At the end of 2008, a position became available in FIFA's press department - and the world association's press officer, who I met at the European Championships, put in a good word for me. And I've been in it ever since.

You worked for FIFA from 2008 to this year. How can you imagine this job? My job consisted of two parts: the office work in Zurich and the local travel. During these years I was abroad for around 100 days, my main task was organizing smaller world championships, i.e. the U-17, U-20 and the Club World Cup.

What exactly did you do there? I was responsible for media work, so on the one hand I had to ensure that press releases were sent out or that media inquiries were answered in order to position FIFA and the respective tournament well so that, for example, stadiums were filled. On the other hand, I was also responsible for ensuring that the media areas met FIFA standards.

Is there an event that you particularly remember from this time? Certainly the U-20 World Cup in Colombia in 2011. A country that is on the upswing - and which, last but not least, showed huge enthusiasm. From the round of 25.000 onwards there were an average of XNUMX spectators in the stadium - that's a record. A great experience.

Speaking of a great experience: Before the 2014 World Cup final, you are said to have chatted with final referee Nicola Rizzoli over breakfast... (laughs) That's right. At the 2014 World Cup, I was the press officer for the referees and was therefore in contact with them. At my first major World Cup in South Africa in 2010, however, I was directly on the field as a media officer and had to keep the official match statistics on the fourth referee's bench. It happened once that I exchanged a few words with stars like Schweinsteiger or Maradonna.

With Sepp Blatter, you had a controversial and world-famous personality as your boss. Was there a special encounter there too? Yes. In 2010 I had a serious skiing accident on the World Cup slope in Lenzerheide, which left me with a severe traumatic brain injury and a hip dislocation. A few months later I was back on my feet. Blatter brought me into his office, we chatted a little and at the end he hugged me. That was very special.

Why did you quit your job now? I really enjoyed my work, but Zurich was always just my place of work. My home is and remains South Tyrol. My wife is from Vipiteno and my colleagues are all from here, so it was clear to me that I would come back at some point. Last year I took over my parents' farm and therefore gave up my job at FIFA.

Last question: Can FIFA clean up its image in the next few years? It will be a years-long process. FIFA's problem is that there is so much money in football. And when there is a lot of money in circulation, it is often used crookedly and incorrectly. There are now a number of control bodies that carry out self-cleaning. Are these credible? I guess so. The internal organs have already banned Platter and Platini, two of the most senior figures. Nevertheless, this cleaning process will take years.

Thomas Debelyak, Sports News

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From St. Pauls to FIFA and back: Wolfi Resch's strange story

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