Sepp Blatter, his reign as the most powerful man in the world's most popular sport all but over, has been venerated and vilified in equal measure during his 17 years as FIFA boss.

His ignominious end comes with Blatter still denying any wrongdoing and accusing jealous rivals, the media and even governments of trying to hound him out of office.

After months of mounting scandal, FIFA announced Thursday that the wily Swiss sports baron had been relieved of all duties after its ethics committee ordered him suspended for 90 days.

Just last month Swiss prosecutors accused him of "criminal mismanagement" in a probe that had already engulfed several of his powerful lieutenants.

Ironically, the thrice-married 79-year-old had told German magazine Bunte in an interview published just hours before the committee's decision that he would soldier on until the next FIFA presidential election.

"I will fight until February 26. For me. And for FIFA," he said. "I am convinced that evil will come into the light and good will triumph."

Some diehard Blatter supporters revere him as the "Jesus" of the beautiful game being crucified by his critics.

Others have vilified him as an out-of-touch rogue clinging on to power, with some in the British media scornfully branding him "Septic Blatter".

He frequently ran into trouble with controversial comments -- once suggesting that racist abuse on the pitch could be resolved with a handshake and that the women's game could be made more attractive if players wore tighter shorts.

The massive scale of the latest scandal first came to light with the arrest of seven FIFA officials in a Swiss hotel on May 30 -- just two days before Blatter's reelection to a fifth term.

With characteristic bluster, Blatter said he was used to "hostility and resentment" during his decades at FIFA.

Fond of maritime analogies, he promised he was the right "commander" who would steer FIFA "out of the storm".

"It seems to me that I am being held to blame for all the ills of the world: the destruction of the rainforests, the rail strike in Germany, frequent volcanic eruptions in Iceland, and -- it goes without saying -- fluctuations on the world's stock markets," he wrote in a FIFA magazine.

His daughter Corinne, a top advisor to her father, was even more explicit. "It's not just envy. It's hatred."

When Swiss prosecutors opened their probe, she told one newspaper: "I am shocked that he is accused of criminal acts. My father is not a criminal."

Born Joseph S. Blatter in the Swiss Alpine town of Visp on March 10, 1936, he was once a handy amateur striker, although he never made it to professional ranks.

Some British media reports suggested he once performed as a wedding singer.

Later, the workaholic Blatter cut his professional teeth in public relations and marketing watches before heading Switzerland's ice hockey federation.

From there he entered FIFA in 1975 and began a meteoric rise that saw him reach 70th on the Forbes list of the world's most powerful people -- the only sports official alongside world leaders Obama and Putin.

Having replaced another deeply controversial long-ruling president, Brazilian Joao Havelange, in 1998, Blatter built FIFA from one small office in Zurich with 10 staff.

One story says that it was Blatter himself who went to the bank to get a loan when money ran out to pay the staff.

Now, it is an organisation employing 1,400 and boasting $1.5 billion in cash reserves. FIFA made about $5.7 billion (5.3 billion euros) in the four years between the 2010 and 2014 World Cups alone.

Blatter says his main achievement has been to make football "universal" -- the first World Cups in Asia (South Korea and Japan in 2002) and Africa (2010) came in his tenure. And hundreds of millions of dollars were given to national federations and in development grants.

But since the day he took office, accusations of skulduggery have never been far away -- with the latest crisis erupting over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.

In the past Blatter had managed to shrug off controversy -- apart from one episode in 2006 when he tried to stop a book on FIFA being published in Switzerland.

Dominican Republic football association president Osiris Guzman last month famously compared Blatter to Jesus, Winston Churchill, Moses, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King.

Asia and African football federations had also declared strong public support for Blatter but Europe turned against him in the shape of UEFA boss Michel Platini.

The French football legend and one-time heir apparent -- now also suspended from football for 90 days -- once said Blatter tried to cling onto power because he cannot face a life of "emptiness" without FIFA's power.