The president of Fifa, Sepp Blatter, has denied responsibility for the corruption scandal engulfing football’s world governing body and has promised to clean up the organisation by pressing ahead with his bid for a fifth term. Blatter told the Fifa congress in Zurich on Thursday afternoon that he could “not monitor everyone all the time” and emphasised that the allegations and arrests focused on “a minority of individuals”. Blatter promised, not for the first time, to rebuild trust.

How Sepp Blatter won the hearts and minds of Africa to ride out Fifa storms Read more

“These are unprecedented and difficult times for Fifa,” he said. “The events of yesterday have cast a long shadow over football and over this week’s congress. Actions of individuals, if proven, bring shame and humiliation on football and demand action and change from us all. We cannot allow the reputation of Fifa to be dragged through the mud any longer.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fifa President Sepp Blatter leaves the stage after making a speech during the opening ceremony of the Fifa Congress in Zurich. Photograph: ARND WIEGMANN/REUTERS

Blatter earlier confirmed that he will seek a fifth term as the head of Fifa, rebuffing a personal plea for him to quit from the head of the game in Europe. Uefa, European football’s governing body, ruled out seeking a postponement of Friday’s election and will instead back Blatter’s challenger, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.

Blatter made his decision to stay after a series of crisis meetings at Fifa HQ with representatives of the six regional football confederations. He rejected a face-to-face demand from the president of Uefa, Michel Platini, for his resignation.



“I asked him to resign: ‘Enough is enough, Sepp.’ He listened to me, but he told me it is too late,” Platini told a news conference in Zurich. Platini said he was “disgusted” and “sickened” by the scandal gripping the organisation.

Fifa: Michel Platini asked Sepp Blatter to step down over corruption arrrests – live Read more

Blatter’s determination to press ahead with the vote comes despite pressure from major sponsors. The British government called on Blatter to quit, but the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, denounced the US-led investigation that led to the arrest of Fifa officials in a dawn raid on their hotel in Zurich on Wednesday.

In total, nine serving and former officials and five sports media and promotion executives were charged over alleged bribes totalling more than $150m (£100m) made over 24 years. A separate Swiss investigation has been launched into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.

Following a meeting of all 54 Uefa members on Thursday, it emerged that former Manchester United chief executive David Gill has vowed to relinquish his seat as vice-president of Fifa if Blatter wins Friday’s election. Gill, a board member of Uefa and and the English Football Association (FA), was applauded when he said he would not take up the seat he was due to inherit from Jim Boyce after Friday’s Fifa Congress.



John Delaney, chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, said: “David Gill stood up and said he won’t take up his seat – that was the big thing. I think it was very brave and very honest of him and there was a good round of applause. People thought: ‘That’s a man of honour.’



“From his own personal perspective, he doesn’t want to serve under Blatter, and you have to respect that position. There wasn’t a vote taken but Michel Platini will tell you Uefa is unified. Whether all 53 transfer their votes over I don’t know – I think one or two will be lost along the way.”

Platini told the Uefa delegates that the confederation needed to unite in support of Blatter’s challenger, Prince Ali. Most of Uefa’s members will back Ali in Friday’s election, though some, including Russia and Spain, will remain staunch backers of the incumbent. Prince Ali is understood to have told the Uefa delegates that he believed he had the support of more than 60 associations outside Europe, which would give him more than enough backing to take the contest to a second round. Ali or Blatter would need a two-thirds majority of the 209 votes to win in the first round and a simple majority thereafter.

Fifa crisis: Visa sponsorship threat compounds calls for Blatter to resign Read more

One Uefa source said that when Platini, a former supporter of Blatter, personally asked the president to stand down, he told him he would not but that he might have considered it if he had been asked earlier. Michael van Praag, the Dutch FA president who stood down from the race last week before Wednesday’s arrests, said Uefa had decided against a boycott of the vote on Friday because that would guarantee a victory for Blatter.

In London, the British government’s sports minister called on Blatter to quit Fifa. John Whittingdale, the culture, media and sport secretary, said the “deeply flawed and corrupt organisation” needed a change of leadership. A spokesman for the prime minister, David Cameron, said he “associated himself fully” with the comments.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest UK culture secretary says there is urgent need for reform at Fifa

Whittingdale told parliament the UK government would write to other European sports ministers, setting out its concerns and seeking their support. The UK will make information available to US prosecutors and examine the allegations to see whether British laws had been broken, he added.



The prime minister’s spokesman was asked whether Cameron thought the next World Cup should take place in Russia. “I understand that many England fans were disappointed that England’s bid hadn’t been successful,” he said. “You know that the prime minister was one of them. He was out there along with others of course trying to get a successful England bid at that time.”

David Cameron backs demands for Sepp Blatter to quit Read more

Cameron has previously said he thought the result of the 2018 World Cup bidding process was “sorted” in advance, with England’s bid team misled by Fifa executives who pledged support then voted for rivals. The prime minister told the Sun he had been left frustrated by the experience in 2010, which he had previously described as “murky”.

Speaking on Russian television, Putin said that the whole affair “looks very strange”, suggesting that it had been engineered by the US to block Blatter’s re-election.

Putin said: “They are accused of corruption – who is? International officials. I suppose that someone broke some rules, I don’t know. But definitely, it’s got nothing to do with the USA. Those officials are not US citizens. If something happened it was not in the US and it’s nothing to do with them.

“It’s another clear attempt by the USA to spread its jurisdiction to other states. And I have no doubt – it’s a clear attempt not to allow Mr Blatter to be re-elected as president of Fifa, which is a great violation of the operating principles of international organisations.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Putin backs Sepp Blatter to stay as Fifa president

Fifa sponsors including Adidas, Visa and Coca-Cola are calling for the body to reform its practices. Visa issued a statement on Wednesday expressing its “disappointment and concern with Fifa”. It said that unless football’s world governing body rebuilt a corporate culture with “strong ethical practices” at its heart, “we have informed them that we will reassess our sponsorship”. The credit card company’s contract with Fifa is worth at least $25m a year.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson said: “This lengthy controversy has tarnished the mission and ideals of the Fifa World Cup and we have repeatedly expressed our concerns about these serious allegations.”

South Korean firm Hyundai Motor Company, the sole Asian Fifa partner for the 2018 World Cup to be held in Russia, said it was extremely concerned. Anheuser-Busch InBev, whose Budweiser brand is a sponsor of the 2018 World Cup, said: “We expect all of our partners to maintain strong ethical standards and operate with transparency.” McDonald’s, meanwhile, said it was monitoring the situation.