By Andrew Warshaw
November 5 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has promised to leave no stone unturned and, for the first time, name names as part of his anti-corruption drive at the heart of world football.
Writing for insideworldfootball ahead of his keynote address at the International Football Arena (IFA) in Zurich on Monday (November 7), attended by 200 opinion leaders, Blatter said he would be explaining more fully how FIFA intends to clean up its act and “remedy the ills of the past” after a year of unprecedented scandal and skulduggery.
“FIFA’s last 100 days were among the most difficult in its over 100-year history,” writes Blatter in a hard-hitting column.
Acknowledging the need for change, he concedes as “horrific” some of the mistakes made by the organisation in recent months – marred by all manner of corruption, with over a third of FIFA’s Executive Committee implicated.
Only “solutions that bite”, Blatter writes, will be acceptable under his planned two-year road to reform.
“It takes time to shake the tree until all bad apples have fallen to the ground,” he said.
“Even if some of them refuse to fall at first.
“What I want to make quite clear, is that by December of this year, we shall present further facts, this time with names attached, on how we want to tackle the necessary changes in the governance of world football.”
Blatter rejects, however, the barrage of personal attacks launched in his direction.
“I am quite aware of the on-going criticism voiced by many, a criticism that occasionally degenerates into personal and below the belt attacks,” he said.
Under the clean-up programme, Blatter has set up a number of new anti-corruption panels to monitor behaviour across the organisation as well as ordering the reopening of the infamous ISL case, FIFA’s former marketing partner that went bust in 2001 amid allegations of bribery involving several leading members of FIFA’s inner sanctum.
Stressing that some of the sweeping changes anticipated can only be approved by the full FIFA congress, Blatter nevertheless declared no wrongdoers would be spared.
“I want you to know that today, we scrutinise everything, no matter where the chips may fall: be that within FIFA or on its periphery around the world,” he promised.
“In brief: I have initiated relevant and powerful change without “ifs” and “whens”.
“We owe the global public the type of transparency that we have not practiced in all areas in the past.”
To read the full exclusive column click here.
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