Sepp Blatter to Step Down as FIFA President

(ATR) Sepp Blatter has announced an extraordinary FIFA congress to elect a new president.

In a surprise press conference on Jun. 2, Blatter said that FIFA will call an extraordinary congress "at the earliest opportunity," to hold a new election. Blatter said that he will maintain his role as the FIFA president until the new election, and that he will not stand.

Blatter was elected to a fifth term at the helm of FIFA on May 29, just four days ago.

"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," Blatter said in his statement.

"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 cited a need for "deep-rooted structural change," within FIFA, and said that institutional chance must come from FIFA rather than the confederations. Blatter added that he is recommending term limits for both the FIFA president and executive committee members.

Speaking after Blatter,Domenico Scala, chairman of the FIFA Audit & Compliance Committee,said that the earliest the congress could be called is in December, due to FIFA bylaws requiring at least four months notice for an election. He added that there must be time for the candidates to present their vision and the ultimate date of the new congress will be decided by the executive committee.

"As I said a year ago, the structure of the executive committee and its members are at the core of the current issues that FIFA is facing. Current events only reinforce my determination to drive this reform," Scala said.

"Many of the issues that have been raised in the past relate to the actions of individuals. In orderto ensure that those who represent FIFA are of the highest integrity, FIFA will seek to implementFIFA-driven integrity checks for all executive committee members,"

Written by Aaron Bauer

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