(ANSA-AP) - Zurich, June 2 - FIFA President Sepp Blatter
resigned Tuesday from soccer's governing body amid a widening
corruption scandal.
He told a press conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich
he will remain at his post until the end of the year and has
promised to call for fresh elections to choose a successor "by
March 2016".
"I care about FIFA above all else...I no longer feel the
support of the world of football," said the 79-year-old, who was
re-elected Friday to his fifth consecutive term as FIFA
president.
The vote came after a crippling corruption probe and the
arrest of seven senior FIFA officials in Zurich on Wednesday.
The US Justice Department said two FIFA vice-presidents
were among those arrested pending extradition to the US on
corruption charges - North and Central America and Caribbean
Confederation President Jeffrey Webb, and Uruguay's Eugenio
Figueredo, the president of South American governing body
Conmebol.
The other five, who were detained at a Zurich hotel in a
dawn raid, are Costa Rica's Eduardo Li, Brazil's Jose Maria
Marin, Nicaragua's Julio Rocha, Venezuela's Rafael Esquivel and
Costas Takkas, an UK national who is an attache to the CONCACAF
president.
They are among 14 suspects indicted on graft charges in
relation to alleged involvement in bribes totalling some $100
million over two decades.
Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has also been
indicted.
Swiss prosecutors, meanwhile, announced that they have
launched a separate investigation into the bidding process for
the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which were assigned to Russia and
Qatar respectively.
FIFA's Zurich headquarters were also raided on Wednesday,
with electronic data and documents seized.
Nevertheless, a FIFA spokesperson told reporters last week
that Blatter would not step down as he is not personally
implicated, and insisted that the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will
go ahead as
planned.
Swiss Blatter has been at the helm of FIFA since 1998 and
had managed to hang on to his position despite repeated reports
of corruption with the organisation, especially regarding the
way the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were awarded.
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