FIFPro welcomes the decision of FIFA president Sepp Blatter to resign as this creates an overdue and unique opportunity to fundamentally reform the governance of football
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| Sepp Blatter |
Blatter's recent decision of stepping down from president post comes in the wake of U.S. criminal charges leveled last week at more than a dozen current and former FIFA officials and sports-marketing executives accused of complicity in alleged corruption over more than two decades.
He made his announcement in Zurich on Tuesday as law enforcement officials in the United States confirmed that he was a focus of a federal corruption investigation. Sepp Blatter is now at the centre of the FBI's corruption probe.
Federal agents, who last week charged 14 FIFA officials with corruption, have told the American media that they are hoping those men will help them build a case against their former boss.
At the press conference in Zurich on tuesday, Blatter said: “I have been reflecting deeply about my presidency and about the forty years in which my life has been inextricably bound to FIFA and the great sport of football.
“I cherish FIFA more than anything and I want to do only what is best for FIFA and for football. I felt compelled to stand for re-election, as I believed that this was the best thing for the organisation. That election is over but FIFA's challenges are not. FIFA needs a profound overhaul.
“Therefore, I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective Congress. Since I shall not be a candidate, and am therefore now free from the constraints that elections inevitably impose, I shall be able to focus on driving far-reaching, fundamental reforms that transcend our previous efforts."
Blatter has resigned. Can't quite believe it. FIFA always appeared to be such a fine upstanding organisation.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 2, 2015
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