Fifa D-day: February 26 is chosen as date to appoint Sepp Blatter successor

FIFA has set the date for the election of Sepp Blatter’s successor as president. The election will take place on 26 February, 2016, as officials also consider a raft of reforms to the controversial organisation. The reforms, drafted by Domenico Scala, the chairman of Fifa’s audit and compliance committee, include restricting Fifa officials to three four-year terms in office, transparency over pay and conditions for officials and integrity checks for all members of the executive committee. Scala believes the reforms should be introduced regardless of who succeeds Blatter, and that they are necessary to stave of external intervention in Fifa.

This is a window of opportunity to get the executive committee to give up some power

Fifa source

Blatter announced his intention to “lay down his mandate” in the wake of the FBI charging 14 people with racketeering in a global investigation. These included 10 football officials. Seven Fifa officials, including the then vice-president Jeffrey Webb, were arrested in Zurich on the same day as Swiss police launched a separate criminal investigation into the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments. Blatter, 79, announced his departure in an attempt to ease the crisis, and also announced his intention to introduce governance reforms at the same extraordinary congress that will elect his successor. Michel Platini is perhaps the leading candidate to succeed Blatter and he will decide in the next two weeks whether to run for president.

You can go down with what is a sinking ship - to use President Blatter’s favoured boating analogy. Or you can decide that enough is enough and make a stand.

Campaign group New Fifa Now in a letter to Fifa officials, calling for a new commission to oversee reform

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