GENEVA – A lame duck president who can't travel freely and a top administrator suspended and placed on leave.
If any global sports body can defy such dysfunction, it is probably Sepp Blatter's FIFA.
Meanwhile, senior soccer officials wonder when and where the U.S. Department of Justice's promised next round of arrests will come.
Jerome Valcke might welcome a break from his job as secretary general after being suspended and put under an ethics investigation for his alleged part in a proposed World Cup black market tickets deal.
His less flamboyant deputy, Markus Kattner, a German finance expert who is unlikely to drive a white Ferrari like Valcke, takes on a promotion — at least until the Feb. 26 election to find Blatter's successor.
Here are some questions and answers about FIFA following the latest turmoil to hit the governing body:
___
Q: What's next for FIFA?
A: However chaotic FIFA appears to outsiders, this is the new normal for people working inside the organization. So maybe not much changes from the past few months after Valcke's exit.
Blatter has left Switzerland only once — that we know of — since May, and then to Vladimir Putin's Russia where there was no chance of being arrested at the World Cup qualifying draw in St. Petersburg.
That won't be a problem next week, when Blatter's much-criticized executive committee comes to Zurich for a two-day meeting. European members have said privately this week they have been given little detail about the agenda.
___
Q: What's happening on the investigation front?
A: Any gathering of senior FIFA people in Zurich raises the specter of the Baur au Lac hotel arrests on May 27 when the U.S. federal racketeering case struck FIFA. In Zurich this week for a conference, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch warned of more action in an expanding case.
"We do anticipate pursuing additional charges against individuals and entities," she said Monday.
Four months after Lynch's department published a 47-charge indictment, and a list of unnamed co-conspirators, it has been a guessing game over who might now be a cooperating witness.
Switzerland's attorney general Michael Lauber added to the intrigue at a news conference with Lynch when he updated his separate investigation focusing on money laundering in the 2018-2022 World Cup bidding contests.
Lauber said apartments had been seized in the Swiss Alps and properties searched in western Switzerland.
Whose and where?
__
Q: What unfinished business did Valcke leave?
A: The day-to-day work at FIFA headquarters doesn't change that much. Heavy lifting in promised reforms of FIFA is being done mostly off site by Swiss lawyer Francois Carrard.
The marketing department still doesn't have any World Cup sponsors to sign, despite having 27 slots to fill for the 2018 World Cup.
Valcke revealed at the World Cup qualifying draw in July he expected no significant deals to be signed until FIFA's new reality is clearer: After a new president is elected on Feb. 26 and chooses a new secretary general.
Until then, Valcke's team still doesn't have a 2026 World Cup bidding contest to run.
___
Q: What about 2026 World Cup bidding?
A: Potential bidders such as the United States, Mexico and Canada want that answered. The process has been delayed since June, and sending out the first round of bidding documents seems nobody's priority right now.
It is unclear how the next FIFA leadership will prioritize the search. Valcke suggested this month it is already near-impossible to meet the planned target for a decision. Member federations are set to choose a 2026 host at the May 2017 congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Of course, the U.S. — should it win — does not need nine years to prepare. But a longer lead-in offers more time for, say, development programs in host cities.
___
Q: And the actual football?
A: FIFA has proven tournament organizing skills. Far away from Zurich, the Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand and Women's World Cup in Canada were largely unaffected by the crisis.
By Blatter and Valcke staying away and avoiding possible high-profile arrests in countries with U.S. extradition treaties, unwanted distractions were avoided.
Next, the Under-17 World Cup kicks off in Chile on Oct. 17. A trickier tournament is the Club World Cup in Japan from Dec. 10-20.
Will Blatter stay away from a scheduled FIFA executive committee in Japan on Dec, 17-18 that he should normally chair.
"I cannot give you any information about Mr. Blatter's travel plans," Lynch said on Monday when asked who might face arrest.
She was smiling then. Few others in Zurich are.
Fox News' "Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world.