Sepp Blatter Meets FIFA Deputies to Discuss Vote Date
FIFA's executive committee is to meet at the world body's headquarters on Monday to set the election date.
FIFA leader Sepp Blatter held talks with his vice presidents late Sunday ahead of a meeting to set a date for an election of a new supremo of the scandal tainted world football body. (Sepp Blatter Claims Innocence)
The group discussed the date, but sources at the talks with top officials from five of the regional confederations, including UEFA's Michel Platini, would not say if they agreed when the vote should be held.
Neither Blatter nor Issa Hayatou of the Confederation of African Football, the Asian Football Confederation's Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, CONCACAF interim chief Alfredo Hawit, Juan Angel Napout of South America's CONMEBOL and Oceania's David Chung commented after the talks. (Sponsors Will Quit Unless FIFA Reforms Are Undertaken)
None of the regional leaders are yet candidates for the election but French football legend Platini, 60, is considering a run.
FIFA's executive committee is to meet at the world body's headquarters on Monday to set the election date. (Comparing FIFA to Mafia, Insulting to Mafia: US Senator)
Blatter could also announce reforms he wants to set underway as FIFA reels from the worst corruption crisis in its history.
The meeting was held one day after former FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb appeared in a New York court and pleaded not guilty to accepting bribes. He was released on $10 million in bail.
Blatter was reelected to a fifth term on May 29, just two days after Webb and six other FIFA officials were arrested in a raid on the luxury Zurich hotel where Sunday's meeting took place.
Webb agreed to be extradited this week. The six others are fighting their transfer to the United States.
US prosecutors have charged 14 people -- football officials and marketing business executives -- over bribes totalling more than $159 million.