Sepp Blatter, who led world soccer’s governing body for 17 years and who was regarded as one of the most powerful people in global sports, said Tuesday that he would resign his position, making his announcement in Zurich even as law enforcement officials in the United States confirmed that he was a focus of a federal corruption investigation.
赛普·布拉特领导了世界足球管理机构17年之久。他被认为是全球体育界最有权势的人之一。周二，就在美国执法人员确认他是联邦贪污调查的重点对象之际，布拉特在苏黎世宣布辞职。
Mr. Blatter had for days tried to distance himself from the controversy, but several United States officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that in their efforts to build a case against Mr. Blatter they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organization.
多日以来，布拉特试图让自己远离争议，但一些匿名的美国官员表示，希望和被起诉的和想要升官的国际足联官员合作，以图针对布拉特立案。
Mr. Blatter’s resignation speech, which he delivered in French to a mostly empty room at FIFA headquarters, served as a stunning coda to a dramatic sequence of events that began last Wednesday with a police raid at a five-star hotel, where seven soccer officials were arrested and held for extradition to the United States on corruption charges.
上周三，警方突然搜捕了一家五星级酒店，逮捕了7名足球官员。他们受到贪污指控，会被引渡给美国。以此事为开端的一系列戏剧性事件有一个令人震惊的尾声：布拉特用法语在几乎没人的国际足联总部发表了辞职演说。
A high-ranking soccer official said Mr. Blatter had been advised by his legal counsel that continuing in his current position could make defending him against possible future prosecution more difficult.
一名足球高官称，布拉特的法律顾问建议，如果布拉特继续担任现有职务，在未来的起诉中为他辩护会变得更加困难。
The soccer official added that pressure on Mr. Blatter from soccer’s corporate partners, as well as from various FIFA members, increased considerably over the weekend as itbecame clear that the Justice department indictment was not just looking at corruption within Concacaf, the regional governing body overseeing soccer in North America, central America and the Caribbean.
这名足球官员还补充道，上周末以来，随着美国司法部的起诉显然将不局限于中北美及加勒比海足协，布拉特受到的来自足球合作伙伴和多个国际足联成员的压力显著增加。
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