World football governing body has urged embattled president, Sepp Blatter, to stick with his decision to step down as FIFA president.
It would be recalled that Blatter resigned as FIFA president on June 2nd 2015. It is thought that the FIFA president is considering re-election at the forthcoming extraordinary elective congress.
However, the independent chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, Domenico Scala, said “The times of flirting with the power are definitely gone,”
“I call on all concerned – including Mr Blatter – to endorse in the interest of the reforms unequivocally the announced changing of the guard at the top of Fifa.”
Blatter who is under investigation by US official for alleged corruption, four day after his re-election said “While I have a mandate from the membership of Fifa, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football.”
“Therefore, I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective congress. I will continue to exercise my functions as Fifa president until that election.”
Blatter, 79, has been in charge of FIFA since 1998 and had previously announced he would quit his post ahead of the organisation’s February 2016 presidential election.
The ethics investigation is in connection with a £1.3m ($2m) paid to Platini in February 2011, for which Blatter is subject to a Swiss criminal investigation.
Lawyers for Blatter said he will remain as FIFA president despite the investigation by the Swiss attorney general, Michael Lauber, into a suspicion that the money paid to Platini was a “disloyal payment”.
Both men stated that it related to work Platini did at Fifa as Blatter’s adviser – which finished nine years earlier, in 2002.
Blatter and Platini are also subject to investigation over the same payment by Fifa’s ethics committee, meaning both could imminently be suspended, which would scupper Platini’s candidacy to be elected Fifa president when Blatter steps down in February.
