Blatter to miss World Cup final

30 June 2015 21:02

FIFA president Sepp Blatter will not travel to Canada for the final of the Women's World Cup, the world governing body has said.

The 79-year-old Swiss would ordinarily present the trophy to the winning team's captain in Vancouver, but his appearance had been in doubt with Blatter reportedly under investigation by the FBI as part of ongoing probes into alleged FIFA corruption.

On Tuesday, FIFA confirmed neither Blatter nor general secretary Jerome Valcke would attend the match.

" Due to their current commitments in Zurich, the FIFA president and the FIFA secretary general will remain at the FIFA headquarters," a statement said.

Blatter announced on June 2 he would step down from the FIFA presidency at an extraordinary congress to be held between December and March. It followed the crisis that engulfed FIFA, with 18 people indicted in the United States on football-related corruption charges.

Blatter has presented the trophy to the tournament winners at every women's World Cup since he became president in 1998.

He was elected to a fifth term as president in May, just days after seven FIFA officials were arrested in a dawn raid on their hotel, but subsequently announced he would "lay down my mandate" as he did not feel he had sufficient support.

Blatter said he would not be a candidate at the extraordinary congress to elect a new president, but appeared to backtrack on that in recent days, reportedly saying: "I have not resigned, I put my mandate in the hands of an extraordinary congress."

An official FIFA statement confirmed the quotes in Swiss newspaper Blick were accurate but added: ''However, they are fully in line with the speech of the president on June 2.''

Domenico Scala, the independent chairman of FIFA's audit and compliance committee, responded by urging Blatter to stick by his decision to quit in the name of reform.

"The times of flirting with the power are definitely gone," he said in a statement.

"I call on all concerned - including Mr Blatter - to endorse in the interest of the reforms unequivocally the announced changing of the guard at the top of FIFA."

Source: PA