FIFA announced Monday that it would select a replacement for its embattled president, Sepp Blatter, in a special election Feb. 26 and that it had initiated a series of changes to try to restore its image after the worst corruption scandal in its history.

The announcements did little to dispel the notion that Mr. Blatter, who announced June 2 that he would resign, still wielded considerable influence in FIFA, world soccer’s governing body. Mr. Blatter announced the new policies himself, speaking alone at a news conference after a meeting of FIFA’s governing executive committee in Zurich. And the delay of the presidential election until 2016, which he had sought, will allow him to serve as president — a position he has held since 1998 — for an additional seven months.

“I am still the president,” Mr. Blatter said. “My mission is to make sure that at the end of February, when I come to the end of my career, that FIFA will have started again these reforms and to rebuild the reputation of FIFA. This is important to me.”

Among the changes underway, Mr. Blatter said, are the creation of a task force led by a “neutral” chairman to study potential ethics reforms and enhanced integrity checks for executive committee members. But critics noted that the neutral chairman would be selected “in consultation” with the presidents of FIFA’s six regional confederations and that Mr. Blatter had revealed that the integrity checks would be conducted by FIFA’s own ethics committee.