Fifa president Sepp Blatter to reveal reform plans

  20 July 2015    Read: 1619
Fifa president Sepp Blatter to reveal reform plans
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is set to announce his plans to reform football`s crisis-hit governing body on Monday.
Blatter will also hold talks with Fifa`s executive committee over a date for the new presidential election.

The 79-year-old announced on 2 June he was stepping aside as head of Fifa, having just been re-elected.

BBC Sport understands 16 December has been earmarked by several regional football confederations as their preferred date for the new ballot.

But the date for what is billed as an `emergency congress` could slip to early 2016 given Blatter`s reported desire to stay in power until the new year.

European governing body Uefa is likely to push hard in Monday`s meeting for a December date but is not expected to seek to force Blatter out early - especially given that interim control of the organisation would fall to the Swiss`s close ally Issa Hayatou.

The emergency talks will mark the first time executives have formally met since the arrest of seven football officials in Zurich in May - part of a US criminal investigation into alleged large-scale corruption and bribery.

However, Brazilian executive committee member Marco Polo del Nero will miss the meeting after telling Fifa he needs to stay at home.

Del Nero left Zurich one day after the May arrests, which saw former Brazilian confederation president Jose Maria Marin placed in detention.

Two of the 14 men indicted by the US have appeared in court in New York in recent days, including former Fifa vice president Jeffrey Webb, who has pleaded not guilty.

Swiss authorities are also investigating the circumstances surrounding the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

They announced last week that 81 suspicious banking transactions are under review and have seized nine terabytes of IT data.

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