Hackers strike again: FIFA’s Sepp Blatter really isn’t resigning

FIFA president Sepp Blatter and soccer’s World Cup have joined the quickly increasing number of high-profile figures and organizations to become victims of Twitter hackers.

Soccer’s governing body said Monday that the Twitter accounts of Blatter and the World Cup organizers had been hacked and that any messages implying that the FIFA president had admitted to corruption and stepped down were untrue.

Of course, anyone following either account closely may have suspected as much. While there were some serious-sounding tweets making allegations of corruption surrounding the controversial decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, other posts seemed a bit more tongue-in-cheek.

“We can confirm that some of FIFA’s Twitter accounts, including the account of the FIFA President and @fifaworldcup, have been hacked today,” FIFA said in a statement. “In the meantime, to avoid any doubt, we kindly ask you to verify and check any statements that you see on a FIFA Twitter account with the FIFA Media department.”

The Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility for hacking the accounts. The group, which says it’s sympathetic to Syria’s President Bashar Assad, has also been tied to the hacking of other Twitter accounts, such as “60 Minutes,” Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera and the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Arabic Service.

The Associated Press’ Twitter account was hacked Tuesday morning with a false report of a bombing at the White House. On Monday night, former Alabama offensive tackle D.J. Fluker’s account posted a message that he had accepted money while playing for the Crimson Tide; his agent has said that Fluker’s account was hacked and that the apparent admission is not true.

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