Blatter told to clean up or resign

Co-head of FIFA’s Ethics Committee, Joachim Eckert, wants to tackle corruption in FIFA and wants to punish anyone standing in the way – even when it comes to president Sepp Blatter, he stated in an interview with the German news magazine Focus. 

In recent years FIFA has been rocked by one corruption scandal after another. At the 2011 Congress in Zurich, Blatter pledged a thorough reform programme, but the only obvious outcome if this so far is the extension of the structure and powers of the ethics committee, writes Keir Radnedge. 

One month after his appointment as the chairman of the ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber, Eckert told Focus that FIFA directors, officials and member associations should be left in no doubt of their duty and responsibility to co-operate with each and every ethics inquiry.

To enforce this, the Ethics Committee will not hesitate to impose financial penalties or even exclusion from FIFA, argues Eckert. 

Eckert said: “The federation must become fully transparent and all money transfers must be looked into. FIFA members should be obliged to provide information. This means for Blatter that either he clears it all up or he has to be gone.” 

Read the interview with Joachim Eckert in Focus (in German)

Read Keir Radnedge’s comment