Sepp Blatter to resign as FIFA President

Just four days after being re-elected, Sepp Blatter announced his resignation as President of FIFA at a hastily convened press conference taking place at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich Tuesday evening.

At the press conference Blatter announced an extraordinary FIFA congress as soon as possible to elect a new president. Until then he will continue to exercise his functions as FIFA President.

“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 – the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe and love football as much as we all do at FIFA,” he said explaining his resignation.

Blatter was re-elected Friday despite the fact that seven top FIFA officials were taken into custody by Swiss police two days before the election on request of US authorities charging them for a number of corruption related offences. In his resignation statement Blatter called for “far-reaching, fundamental reforms” of FIFA and the continental football confederations, including reform steps that have earlier been rejected.

“The size of the Executive Committee must be reduced and its members should be elected through the FIFA Congress. The integrity checks for all Executive Committee members must be organised centrally through FIFA and not through the confederations. We need term limits not only for the president but for all members of the Executive Committee,” Blatter said.

How and when this will happen is still uncertain, but Sepp Blatter announced that Domenico Scala, the Independent Chairman of FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee, will oversee the further process.

At the press conference Scala further outlined a number of changes:

“While FIFA operates in line with all applicable laws and international accounting standards, FIFA recognises that many have questioned the transparency by which FIFA operates. To address specific calls, FIFA will seek to publicize the compensation of the President and the Executive Committee Members and will propose term limits for the President and Executive Committee members,” Scala said.