International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach called on FIFA to find “a credible external presidential candidate of high integrity” in a statement Thursday, after FIFA suspended president Sepp Blatter and others for 90 days or longer.
Blatter is an IOC member as long as he’s FIFA’s president, or until March 10, when he reaches the age limit of 80.
UEFA president Michel Platini, who had been favored to take over as FIFA’s leader, was also suspended 90 days. Platini played for the French soccer team at the 1976 Olympics and helped light the Albertville 1992 Winter Olympic cauldron.
From Bach:
Enough is enough. We hope that now, finally, everyone at FIFA has at last understood that they cannot continue to remain passive. They must act swiftly to regain credibility because you cannot forever dissociate the credibility of FIFA from the credibility of football.
FIFA must realise that this is now about more than just a list of candidates. This is also a structural problem and will not be solved simply by the election of a new President.
They must do two things immediately: they must accelerate and deepen the reform process in order to comply with accountability, transparency and all the principles of good governance, as expressed in our reform programme, Olympic Agenda 2020.
They should also be open for a credible external presidential candidate of high integrity, to accomplish the necessary reforms and bring back stability and credibility to FIFA.
