UEFA calls for postponement of FIFA Presidential election

UEFA have called for the postponement of the FIFA Presidential election ©FIFA

UEFA has called for tomorrow's FIFA Presidential election to be postponed by up to six months, as the fallout from the latest corruption allegations continues to rock the football world to its foundations.

In a strongly-worded statement, issued after an emergency meeting of the European Confederation’s Executive Committee in Warsaw prior to last night’s Europa League final won by Sevilla, UEFA said: “Today’s events are a disaster for FIFA and tarnish the image of football as a whole.

“UEFA is deeply shocked and saddened by them.

“These events show, once again, that corruption is deeply rooted in FIFA’s culture.

“There is a need for the whole of FIFA to be ‘rebooted’ and for a real reform to be carried out.

“The upcoming FIFA Congress risks to turn into a farce and therefore the European associations will have to consider carefully if they should even attend this Congress and caution a system which, if it is not stopped, will ultimately kill football.

“The UEFA member associations are meeting tomorrow ahead of the FIFA Congress.

“At that point, the European associations will decide on what further steps need to be taken to protect the game of football.

“In the meantime, the members of the UEFA Executive Committee are convinced that there is a strong need for a change to the leadership of this FIFA and strongly believe that the FIFA Congress should be postponed, with new FIFA Presidential elections to be organised within the next six months.”

UEFA President Michel Platini with under-pressure FIFA President Sepp Blatter ©Getty Images

Until now, FIFA has insisted that the election, pitting 79-year-old incumbent Sepp Blatter against Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, will go ahead as scheduled.

Opinion late last night here, as football officials from around the world continued to stream in to the genteel lakeside city, was that Blatter would even now be difficult to beat if the election does go ahead – not least because heavy-hitters such as UEFA President Michel Platini chose not to run – although there were some suggestions that support for Prince Ali was starting to build.

Europe has long been expected to provide the chief reservoir of support for the Jordanian, with his native Asia thought likely for the most part to fall into line behind Blatter.

The United States Justice Department yesterday lobbed an almighty grenade into what had appeared to be the Swiss septuagenarian’s almost inevitable progress towards a fifth term, indicting nine FIFA officials and five other executives for racketeering, conspiracy and corruption.

Developments in what was an extraordinary day, even by FIFA’s standards, had kicked off with a dramatic dawn raid by Swiss police that led to the arrest of a number of officials, including Jeffrey Webb, President of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).

Journalists, photographers and TV crews queue to enter the FIFA headquarters ©Getty Images

The United States Justice Department on Wednesday lobbed an almighty grenade into what had appeared to be the Swiss septuagenarian’s almost inevitable progress towards a fifth term, indicting nine FIFA officials and five other executives for racketeering, conspiracy and corruption.