The way FIFA can regain credibility is to implement reforms such as the International Olympic Committee did in the wake of the scandal surrounding the awarding of the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City, IOC president Thomas Bach has told Sky News.
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The 61-year-old German added they must also address the allegations of corruption that has engulfed football’s global governing body.
The IOC had been rocked back in 1998 with accusations of members taking bribes for votes and resulted in several of their number being thrown out. Despite charges being brought against members of the Salt Lake City organising committee, none were found guilty.
IOC President Thomas Bach: `We highly respect this decision of President Blatter to step down & to initiate the necessary reforms.’
— Steve Wilson (@stevewilsonap) June 2, 2015
“It’s absolutely important for FIFA to regain credibility so I can only advise that they work hard at reforms and work hard on addressing these grave allegations,” Bach said.
“We had our difficulties 15 years ago and we did two things. We took swift action with regard to members, 10 members expelled or retired, and we undertook reforms.
“I am very proud that we elected athletes to the IOC, we have a system of accountability, strict rules on the election of host countries and we have even more reforms for transparency coming.”
Meanwhile, Martin Glenn, the new chief executive of the Football Association (FA), said England would not be a contender to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups.
In the wake of the FIFA corruption scandal, culture secretary John Whittingdale had said England – who lost out to Russia for the 2018 edition – was ready to step in and host either one if they were taken away from the hosts.
However, Glenn rubber-stamped what his boss Greg Dyke had said on Friday about not hosting either tournament.
“We are really not interested,” Glenn said. “It has gone to Russia in good faith, they have not had a World Cup, why shouldn’t they play there, and 2022 was never going to be in Europe so it should be outside of Europe. So we support the World Cup being dispersed around the world, as the name suggests.”
He added: “We are very pleased that there is going to be change at FIFA, and we will work with UEFA and FIFA to make sure there is progress.”
