Fifa corruption inquiry: Sepp Blatter under pressure

BBC News

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has chaired an emergency meeting under growing political pressure over a corruption scandal that saw arrests on Wednesday.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is calling for Mr Blatter to resign. Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed Mr Blatter for a fifth term.

Mr Blatter says he has no intention of resigning, the BBC understands.

Friday's presidential election will now go ahead and Uefa, which had threatened a boycott, says it will attend.

The head of Uefa, Europe's football body, Michel Platini, had asked Mr Blatter to resign after the crisis talks in Zurich, which involved heads of the six international confederations.

Key sponsors have expressed concern over the twin corruption investigations by the US and Swiss authorities.

Fifa bans

Mr Blatter was not among the total of 14 people charged by the US authorities on Wednesday with racketeering, fraud and money laundering.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had urged a delay in the vote, saying Fifa's current image was disastrous

Mr Putin, however, said the allegations against Fifa were a clear attempt by the US to stop Mr Blatter's re-election.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) said in a statement that it opposed any delay to the vote. The BBC understands Uefa was the only confederation to put pressure on Mr Blatter to quit.

The emergency meeting was Mr Blatter's first appearance since the crisis began on Wednesday.

Mr Platini met Mr Blatter one on one after the talks and asked him directly to step down, says BBC Sport's Ben Smith in Zurich.

The vice-chairman of England's Football Association, David Gill, said he would not take up his post on Fifa's executive committee if Mr Blatter were re-elected.

Uefa agreed at its meeting on Thursday to throw its weight behind Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Mr Blatter's only challenger, in Friday's vote.

Swiss investigation

Fifa has provisionally banned from football-related activity 11 of the 14 people charged.

Some of the officials are accused of receiving bribes to influence the outcome of bids to stage football tournaments, such as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the 2016 Copa America in the US. South African government officials have denied the claim.

In addition to Coca-Cola and Visa, major sponsors Adidas, McDonald's, Hyundai Motor, Budweiser and Gazprom are also pressing Fifa to take immediate actionto restore its reputation.

Swiss prosecutors plan to interview 10 Fifa executive committee members as part of a separate investigation into the bidding process for the World Cup tournaments in 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar.