European football leaders call on Sepp Blatter to stand down as Fifa head

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/10/greg-dyke-sepp-blatter-fifa-president-world-cup

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European football leaders have told Fifa president Sepp Blatter he should step down next year.

Uefa executive committee member Michael van Praag says he told Blatter he should not be a candidate for re-election because Fifa’s reputation has been so damaged during his presidency. While the likes of FA chairman Greg Dyke and David Gill were also critical of Blatter’s regime.

Van Praag says “people link Fifa to corruption and bribery and all kinds of old boy’s network.” The Netherlands federation president said it was not a personal attack.

Blatter met Uefa delegates on Tuesday after getting support from Fifa’s five other confederations.

“The image of Fifa has been tarnished by everything that has happened over the last years,” Van Praag said in an interview in the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant from Sao Paulo, where he is attending this week’s Fifa Congress.

“There are very few people who still take Fifa seriously and whatever way you want to cut and dice it, Blatter is responsible in the end,” he added.

Dyke responded forcefully to Blatter at the meeting after the FIFA president had addressed the room and told him that his claim that racism was behind corruption allegations was “totally unacceptable”.

Dyke said after the meeting: “I said to him, ‘I regard the comments you made yesterday about allegations in the British media in which you described them as racist as totally unacceptable.

“The allegations being made are nothing to do with the racism, they are allegations about corruption.”

England’s Uefa vice-president David Gill labelled Blatter’s decision to commit a U-turn on his 2011 pledge to stand down in 2015 as “disappointing”.

Gill, the former Manchester United chief executive, said: “The very fact in 2011 he was clear it was just for four years, that should have been the situation. To change his mind is disappointing.”

Asked if he thought Blatter should step down next year, he added: “Personally yes, I think we need to move on. I think we need a full, frank and open debate about what FIFA needs going forward.”

Gill also echoed Dyke in that Blatter’s comments about racism being behind the Qatar 2022 World Cup corruption allegations were “unacceptable”.

African officials were among those alleged to have taken payments from Qatar’s former FIFA member Mohamed Bin Hammam, according to the Sunday Times.

“The statement made by Mr Blatter yesterday was from our point of view totally incorrect,” said Gill.

“This was about the issue being raised quite rightly in the British media which should be addressed by the world governing body and to try and portray it as racist or a discriminatory attack is totally unacceptable.”