Sepp Blatter resigns as FIFA president four days after re-election

(Creative Commons)

June 2nd, 2015 (VOA) Sepp Blatter resigned as FIFA president on Tuesday, four days after being re-elected to a fifth term.

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.

“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,” Blatter said in a statement.

“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.
Therefore, I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective Congress,” the statement said, adding “I will continue to exercise my functions as FIFA President until that election.”

He said an extraordinary election would be held ‘as rapidly as possible’ to choose a new president.

Sepp Blatter had tried to distance himself from FIFA’s corruption scandal involving $150 million in bribes.

Blatter said Saturday in Zurich that he was not the “high-ranking FIFA official” mentioned in the U.S. indictment alleged to have wired $10 million to CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) officials for a vote to select South Africa as the host country of 2010 World Cup.