Blatter’s only rival for the presidency, Mohamed Bin Hammam, pulled out of the running after being suspended pending a full investigation into allegations of corruption that were raised by FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer. In a further twist on Tuesday evening, Lisle Austin, acting president of the North, Central American and Caribbean CONCACAF body, attempted to fire Blazer as general secretary of the organisation, only for the Confederation to quickly thwart his attempts to remove the apparent whistleblower.
Austin was appointed on Monday following the suspension of Jack Warner, who was also implicated in Blazer’s dossier of allegations. In a statement, Austin blasted Blazer’s ”gross misconduct of duty and judgement”. However, CONCACAF later stated: “Under the CONCACAF statutes, jurisdiction over the general secretary rests solely with the CONCACAF executive committee which has taken no action. Further a majority of the executive committee members have advised Mr Austin that he does not have the authority to take such action. Chuck Blazer continues as CONCACAF general secretary and with the full authority of his office.”
Football Association (FA) chairman David Bernstein admitted on Tuesday that the English body’s attempts to delay the vote on Wednesday is almost certain to fail with the FA needing 75% of the 208 associations to back calls for a postponement. However, by Tuesday evening, the Scottish Football Association was the only national body to confirm it would support the FA.
“To get 150-odd votes clearly would be extremely difficult when we starting from a standing start but there was actually a matter of principle involved,” said Bernstein. “Myself and the FA feel that the situation FIFA has got itself into is in many ways unacceptable.” Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan later said: “We believe the election should be rescheduled to facilitate a period of consultation to deal with the issues that have arisen in recent weeks. The events of the last two days, in particular, have made any election unworkable.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Emirates and Visa followed statements from fellow FIFA top-tier sponsors Adidas and Coca-Cola on Monday by expressing concern about the corruption allegations. “Emirates, like all football fans around the world, is disappointed with the issues that are currently surrounding the administration of the sport,” stated Emirates. “We hope that these issues will be resolved as soon as possible and the outcome will be in the interest of the game and sport in general.”