Wednesday 3 June 2015 00:36, UK
FAI chief executive John Delaney insists Sepp Blatter had no option other than resign because of increasing pressure of his position as FIFA president.
Blatter announced his intention to stand down at a hastily arranged press conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
The decision comes just four days after he was re-elected as president of the world football governing body, despite 73 of the 209 nations voting against the 79-year-old.
Blatter’s reinstatement comes amid allegations of corruption from the Swiss authorities and the FBI, which led to 14 arrests of FIFA officials last week, and has drawn criticism from sponsors of the World Cup, various national associations and political figures such as British Prime Minister David Cameron.
And Delaney reckons today’s events justify the position of Blatter’s growing array of critics.
“It’s a good, even a great day for world football,” Delaney said. “Hardly surprising, maybe people are surprised that it took only four days since he was elected.
“But there was a momentum against him, be it the 73 countries who voted against him, be it the supporters, be it a FBI investigation, be it David Cameron, be it the sponsors.
“I mean the whole world wanted a change with FIFA at the highest level, they wanted Blatter to go and the whole world wanted a change of culture at FIFA.
“When I heard the news today I was delighted. It vindicates a lot of people who took very strong positions in the last couple of weeks that he should step down.
“The first thing is Blatter needs to go and be gone, and that needs to happen pretty swiftly. I know there are talks about the special congress being in December, I read some of the rhetoric that he’s been making today, saying he’s going to bring in all these changes now.
“To me he’s an Emperor with no clothes, he should leave that aside for us now and for the 209 nations to bring those changes in and support a president that actually brings a culture of change to FIFA and then brings in strong governance changes.”
Tuesday’s developments means David Gill, from the UEFA Executive Committee will now take his place in the FIFA counterpart, having initially refused the role while Blatter retained his position.
Delaney is happy with the outcome, as he reckons the Englishman is better equipped than former IFA president Jim Boyce.
Delaney said: “I’m delighted David Gill will now take his position at FIFA. David is someone I rated very, very highly - he would have been a huge loss had he not got to sit on the board of FIFA. We have people like Jim Boyce, who wouldn’t really be up to the calibre of David Gill, and I’m thrilled now that David will take that position.”
But Delaney believes it will take time to turn the body around, but he is adamant transparency is the key to moving away from the current situation.
Delaney said: “It’s a big job. I think getting an open transparent system in place, getting rid of all these bribery and corruption charges – we’re going to have a bit of that over the next number of months and years I’m sure because the FBI I assume will continue the investigation, so are the Swiss authorities, so all those investigations will continue, there’s always going to be a backlog of events dealing with the past while the new president stays in place.
“But whoever becomes president need to put out in very clears terms the governance changes that are going to be brought into place to ensure the public trust going forward. We know the public trust UEFA as a European governing body, it’s important the public trusts FIFA because this is the world game and it’s a world organisation that run the world game.”
