UEFA are threatening to boycott the FIFA presidential elections after branding the indictment of nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives for “racketeering conspiracy and corruption” by the US Department of Justice as a “disaster” for the organization.
Former Manchester United chief executive David Gill represented the FA at an emergency meeting in Warsaw ahead of the Europa League final last night, after which a statement was released saying the latest action against some of FIFA’s top executives “tarnish the image of football as a whole”.
“UEFA is deeply shocked and saddened,” the statement continued. “These events show, once again, that corruption is deeply rooted in FIFA’s culture. FIFA needs to be ‘rebooted’ for real reform to be carried out.
“The upcoming FIFA Congress risks to turn into a farce and therefore the European associations will have to consider carefully if they should even attend.”
A final decision will be made after a meeting of the European associations in Zurich this morning, but last night UEFA was clear that if the current system was not stopped it could “kill football”.
In the meantime former FIFA president Lennart Johansson, the man Sepp Blatter beat to climb to power in 1998, called for England to host the 2018 World Cup after questions were raised over the most recent round of bidding.
“I expect they will reconsider the decisions,” he said. “Blatter himself has said that the decision to go east wasn’t proper. I am sure the initiative will now be taken to make a new decision.
“England haven’t had it since 1966, and it’s considered ‘the motherland of football’. They are worthy of the attention.”