Blatter defiant as re-election vote looms

Insists only he can clean up the sport, to the dismay of critics who want to issue a red card to his 17-year rule

FIFA president Sepp Blatter headed into a re-election vote today adamant that only he can clean up the world's most popular sport, to the dismay of critics who want to issue a red card to his 17-year rule.

The boss of football's governing organisation brazened it out after governments joined leading figures of the global game along with deep-pocketed sponsors in crying foul over FIFA's corruption scandal.

British Prime Minister David Cameron backed calls for Blatter to resign, while French President Francois Hollande said sports groups selecting the hosts of major events must be "irreproachable".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that if world football can't clear up "poisonous" corruption, government agencies would be forced to step in.

 

The commercial fallout grew with South Korea's Hyundai Motor, a major sponsor of FIFA, saying it was "extremely concerned" after this week's arrests and start of criminal probes implicating the football body.

Credit card giant Visa has threatened to "reassess" its sponsorship if FIFA does not clean up its act. Coca-Cola, Adidas, McDonald's and Budweiser have also spoken out, while the United Nations says it is reviewing its cooperation accords with FIFA.

But Blatter has survived scandal before and looked set for a fifth term in Friday's vote, backed by African and Asian allies, despite the criminal investigations underway in the United States and Switzerland.

Blatter opened FIFA's annual congress Thursday by saying he could "not monitor everyone all of the time", shrugging off blame after the dramatic arrests in Switzerland at the behest of US prosecutors.

"The next few months will not be easy for FIFA. I am sure more bad news will follow but it is necessary to begin to restore trust in our organisation," the 79-year-old president said.

"It must ultimately fall to me to bear the responsibility for the reputation and well-being of our organisation, and to ultimately find a way to move forward and fix things," Blatter added.

He called the scandals "unprecedented" and said the "actions of individuals bring shame and humiliation on football and demand action and change from us all".

Blatter spoke hours after a showdown with European football chief Michel Platini, who professed himself "sickened" and "disgusted", and called on him to quit for the good of the game.