Zurich: Sepp Blatter speaks during a news conference at the FIFA headquarters on Tuesday.—AP

ZURICH: Sepp Blatter resigned as FIFA president on Tuesday in the face of a US-led corruption investigation that has plunged world football’s governing body into the worst crisis in its history.

Blatter, 79, announced the decision at a news conference in Zurich, six days after the FBI raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested several FIFA officials and just four days after he was re-elected to a fifth term as president.

Blatter said an election to choose a new FIFA president would be held as soon as possible.

“FIFA needs profound restructuring,” he said.

FIFA, ruled over by Blatter since 1998, was rocked this week by the announcement of a US investigation into alleged widespread financial wrongdoing stretching back for years. Swiss authorities mounted their own criminal probe into the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively.

The US Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Blatter initially attempted to bat away the furore, relying on his network of friends to hold onto power at FIFA, which he joined in 1975.

While Blatter was not mentioned in either the US or Swiss investigations, there were widespread calls for him to quit, mostly from Western nations. Some major sponsors also expressed misgivings about the impact of the scandal.

The investigation however closed in on Blatter on Tuesday, when FIFA was forced to deny that his right-hand man, Secretary-General Jerome Valcke, was implicated in a $10 million payment that lies at the heart of the US case.

But at the same time, a letter addressed to Valcke was published outlining the transaction.

Valcke, who has been secretary-general since 2007 and is seen as one of the most powerful men in world sport, had no role in the payments, which were authorised by the chairman of FIFA’s Finance Committee, FIFA said in an earlier statement.

The chairman of the committee at the time of the payments was Argentina’s Julio Grondona, who died last year.

A person familiar with the matter said on Monday that US prosecutors believe Valcke made the $10 million bank transactions which are central to a US bribery investigation against FIFA.

Meanwhile, Switzerland’s office of attorney general (OAG) said it was not investigating outgoing FIFA president Blatter, who announced he was stepping down in a hastily convened press conference shortly before.

“Joseph S. Blatter is not under investigation by the OAG. His announced resignation will have no influence on the ongoing criminal proceedings,” the attorney general said.

The attorney general said it would release no further information.

Also on Tuesday, the chief ethics investigator of FIFA said he would keep working at world football’s governing body to secure compliance with its ethics code, after Blatter announced he was stepping down.

“The [investigatory] chamber will continue its mandate along with the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee of consistently ensuring compliance with FIFA’s Code of Ethics and will make this its highest priority, regardless of who is president,” Cornel Borbely, FIFA’s chief ethics investigator, said on Tuesday.

“The body’s independence from the president, regardless of who is exercising this function, is a key part of good corporate governance.”

Borbely’s statement came moments after Blatter resigned as FIFA president in the face of a corruption investigation.

In the meantime, a senior Jordanian football official told AFP that Jordanian Prince Ali bin al Hussein will stand in new elections for the presidency FIFA after Blatter announced he was to quit FIFA.

Prince Ali failed in his bid last week to oust Blatter, the Swiss veteran winning a fifth term in Friday’s vote.

“As for new elections, Prince Ali is ready,” Sala Sabra, vice-president of the Jordanian football federation which the prince heads up, told AFP.The prince, Sabra added, was also ready “to take up the presidency immediately if they ask him”.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2015

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