Australian soccer presenter Les Murray says FIFA cannot rid itself of corruption under the guidance of president Sepp Blatter and has called for his removal for the health of the sport.
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The FIFA presidential election is set to take place on Friday beneath the latest cloud of allegations of corruption after seven senior officials were arrested as part of a joint US and Swiss police investigation. Incumbent Blatter was the favourite to be voted in against his only opponent, Prince Ali Bin Hussein of Jordan, but that could change after the latest revelations of bribery.
Murray believes Blatter's chances of being re-elected have taken a big hit as a result of the most significant allegations of corruption yet and does not believe FIFA can repair its tarnished image under his control.
"All this happened during Blatter's governance. I think a lot of them will have second thoughts about voting for Blatter and I think this incident will have delivered quite a number of votes to his opponent, Prince Ali," Murray said. "[Blatter] must have known what was going on. There's never been any hard proof that I have seen that suggests that Blatter is corrupt or he took a bribe. But what is clear is that a lot of people did [take bribes] during his governance and nobody would believe that he didn't know about it. I don't think FIFA can continue and try to regain credibility with Blatter still at the helm.''
While a re-vote of the widely criticised process for the 2022 World Cup remains some way off, Murray suggests Blatter was the only FIFA Executive Committee member to vote for Australia.
"My sources are telling me that it wasn't The Kaiser [Franz Beckenbauer] who voted for Australia, it was Sepp Blatter," Murray said.
Fairfax Media sources provided information supporting this claim, confirming that senior officials of Australia's bidding team received a call from Blatter informing them of his vote while Beckenbauer was only public in his support for Australia's bid before the vote was held in December 2010.
Meanwhile, it is understood that arrested FIFA official Nicolas Leoz never accepted an invitation to visit Australia and discuss their bid ahead of the vote for the 2022 World Cup when he was a member of the FIFA Ex-Co.
