Fifa dramatically cancelled a planned press conference with the president, Sepp Blatter, at the last moment on Friday, adding to the sense of turmoil surrounding world football’s governing body.
Blatter was due to host a press conference following a two-day executive committee meeting, amid questions over ongoing American and Swiss corruption investigations that led to a spate of arrests and sent the organisation into meltdown.
Sources inside the meeting, which rubber stamped the dates for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and heard updates on the ongoing internal reform process, have described it as “routine”.
They were fully expecting the press conference to take place. It was first delayed by an hour and then cancelled altogether less than five minutes before it was due to start.
Blatter would have faced questions about American and Swiss investigations of corruption in Fifa and the recent decision to suspend his secretary general, Jerome Valcke, last week. Valcke, who denies wrongdoing, was faced with allegations that he was involved in a scheme to sell World Cup tickets above face value.
Blatter’s lawyer in Zurich, Lorenz Erni, was earlier spotted arriving at Fifa’s opulent HQ and the 79-year-old is said to have been in a meeting.
The Fifa president has promised to “lay down” his mandate in February following the avalanche of corruption claims and a US indictment that alleged a $100m “World Cup of fraud” involving Fifa officials over several decades.
Earlier, Fifa had also confirmed that its December executive committee meeting, at which reforms to be presented at Fifa’s extraordinary Congress in February were to have been unveiled, would be moved from Japan to Zurich. Blatter has been reluctant to travel to countries with extradition agreements with the US.
