FIFA's Blatter will not attend women's World Cup final -lawyer

NEW YORK  - FIFA President Sepp Blatter will not travel to Canada for the final of the women's World Cup on July 5 for personal reasons, a U.S.-based lawyer for Blatter said on Tuesday.

Senior executives of Zurich-based FIFA were charged with corruption on May 27 by prosecutors in the United States over bids for major soccer tournaments dating back 24 years and involving up to $150 million in purported bribes.

Blatter came under pressure to step down, and he announced on June 2 that he would do so. U.S. prosecutors have not accused Blatter of wrongdoing but his stewardship of world soccer's governing body is under scrutiny, sources familiar with investigations in the United States and Switzerland have said.

"He's not going to go to the finals in Canada," said the lawyer, Richard Cullen. "He has informed the organizers of that and cited personal reasons."

Cullen said that FIFA Senior Vice President Issa Hayatou of Cameroon would preside at the trophy ceremony after the final in Vancouver instead.

This will be the first time Blatter has not presented the trophy to the winners of the women's competition, which is held every four years, since he became FIFA president in 1998.

Blatter, the self-styled "godfather of women's football," said before the tournament began on June 6 that he was looking forward to being in Canada. The tournament's semi-finals will be contested by the United States and Germany on Tuesday and England and Japan on Wednesday.

Investigations by U.S. and Swiss authorities also include scrutiny of how FIFA awarded World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar for the 2018 and 2022 men's tournaments.  — Reuters

Blatter replacement must be 'squeaky clean' says FA boss

Sepp Blatter's replacement as FIFA president must be "squeaky clean" and have a forensic eye to turn world soccer's scandal-hit governing body into a transparent organisation, said English FA chairman Greg Dyke.

Blatter unexpectedly announced earlier on Tuesday that he was quitting as FIFA chief, just four days after he was re-elected to a fifth term.

Dyke has been an outspoken critic of Blatter and said in the wake of the 79-year-old's re-election that the Swiss would not see out his term of office.

Dyke described Blatter's decision to step down as a "good day for football", but said the replacement would have his work cut out after a corruption investigation plunged FIFA into the worst crisis in its history.

"The real issue now is whoever replaces Blatter has got to be squeaky clean because we haven't had a squeaky clean president of FIFA for many, many years," Dyke told Sky Sports.

"It has got to be somebody who can forensically look at that organisation, or bring in the forensic accountants to look at that organisation, sort out the money, find where it has gone.

"We don't even know how much money these people get paid, we don't know what their expenses are -- we know nothing. All that has got to be transparent.

"There's a lot of good people who work in FIFA who I think must be dismayed at what they've had to endure, certainly in the last week."

Dyke, who said future presidents should be prevented from standing for more than two terms in office, questioned the reasons behind Blatter's sudden resignation.

"He was triumphant in Zurich, four days later he's gone. So who got him, who shot him, is the interesting question," he said.

"I don't believe he went for any sort of moral basis because I don't believe that's the man, so something has happened between then and now which means he has to resign.

"I just don't think he's the sort of person who would suddenly have had a moral conversion on the road to Damascus and said, 'Oh maybe I'm not the right person for football'.

"He would have hung on forever so clearly something has happened. We'll find out no doubt in the next few days."

FIFA was rocked two days before the election when the FBI raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested several FIFA officials. - Reuters