Scala urges Blatter to resign as planned
The ESPN FC crew respond to reports that Sepp Blatter is considering running for FIFA president again, while Shaka Hislop is not surprised in the least bit.
Domenico Scala, the independent chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, has urged FIFA president Sepp Blatter to stick with his plans to step down.
According to Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag, Blatter is considering staying on as FIFA president despite his resignation in early June.
The paper quoted an unnamed source close to Blatter as saying he “had received messages of support from African and Asian football associations” asking him to rethink his decision to resign. The 79-year-old Blatter has already reneged on a 2011 promise to leave office in 2015.
However Scala, the official overseeing the next FIFA presidential election, said in a statement: “For me, the reforms are the central topic. That is why I think it is clearly indispensable to follow through with the initiated process of leadership change as it has been announced.”
The FIFA executive committee will meet in Zurich on July 20 to set the election date. Lawmakers from the 28-nation European Parliament last week voted on a resolution calling for Blatter to speed up his announced resignation and let FIFA appoint an interim leader.
Scala set out the election process at FIFA headquarters on June 2 directly after Blatter’s sudden resignation statement and said that significant work was required to “regain the trust of the public,” including imposing term limits for the president.
Meanwhile, Germany manager Joachim Low and DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach have both added their weight to the argument that Blatter should step down as planned.
Low told T-Online: “I think his [Blatter’s] resignation was absolutely OK. FIFA has to be restructured and reorganised. There has to be a fresh start because harm has been done to the game of football.”
DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach added: “We know these reports from Switzerland, but we have a firm stand: The announced resignation must be acted out formally as quick as possible.”
Meanwhile, Switzerland’s federal prosecutor will talk about his criminal investigation of FIFA’s 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid contests for the first time on Wednesday.
The office of Attorney-General Michael Lauber says he will make a statement about the case at a news conference in Bern.
Lauber’s department raided FIFA headquarters to seize evidence on May 27.
On the same day, Swiss authorities raided a Zurich hotel and arrested seven officials linked to FIFA for a separate United States federal investigation of bribery and racketeering.
The Swiss case is targeting possible criminal mismanagement and money laundering in bidding campaigns won by Russia and Qatar, respectively.
FIFA began the case by filing a criminal complaint last November.
Lauber’s office is using an investigation report by FIFA’s former ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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