ZURICH — FIFA President Sepp Blatter chaired an emergency meeting with continental soccer bodies Thursday while staying out of public view himself. Blatter called together leaders of FIFA's regions as world soccer is rocked by an American federal racketeering case. “There was a meeting today with the president with the representatives from the confederations to discuss the current situation,” FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer said in a statement. The North American body, known as CONCACAF, said it was not represented at the meeting. CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb, a FIFA vice president, was among seven men arrested in an early morning raid at a luxury hotel Wednesday by Swiss police at the request of US authorities. Blatter is resisting calls from European soccer body UEFA to postpone Friday's FIFA presidential election by six months. UEFA has called the dual American and Swiss federal probes a “disaster for FIFA,” and is supporting Blatter's election opponent, FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan. Blatter has continued to avoid appearing in public since Swiss federal agencies raided FIFA headquarters and the Baur au Lac hotel. He missed giving a scheduled speech to open a session of FIFA's medical conference in a Zurich hotel — his third skipped public appearance within 24 hours. FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak told delegates that Blatter has to “manage the situation.” Two FIFA vice presidents were among seven men arrested at the request of the US Department of Justice. In a separate investigation, Swiss federal agencies seized evidence at FIFA headquarters for a probe of the 2018-2022 World Cup bidding contests. Blatter skipped two meetings of continental soccer organizations from Africa and South America Wednesday. He typically would attend those ahead of Friday's annual congress of FIFA's 209 member federations. The FIFA president would also usually follow protocol and attend Thursday's UEFA meeting. He is scheduled to appear later in the day. Blatter is also expected to address member federations — the FIFA election voters — at the opening ceremony of the congress. As Blatter prepared to open the congress in Switzerland, top sponsors who pour millions into world football — including Coca-Cola, Adidas, McDonald's and Visa — pressed the global body to clean itself up. Visa said that unless FIFA rebuilds a corporate culture with “strong ethical practices” at its heart, “we have informed them that we will reassess our sponsorship.” FIFA was adamant that despite the arrests early Wednesday of the seven officials in a luxury Zurich hotel, its congress and leadership vote would go ahead as planned this week. But leading figures in the global game, as well as newspapers around the world, said such a stand was untenable after US prosecutors said their investigation had unearthed the “World Cup of fraud.” “Sepp Blatter has to go as FIFA president,” said Greg Dyke, chairman of the English Football Association, European federations demanded the suspension of the FIFA congress starting Thursday and Friday's presidential vote to be put back by six months. Former Brazil star turned senator Romario, a vociferous critic of corruption in the game, said he hoped the investigations would stymie Blatter's hopes of re-election, and called for a “worthy” leader. “I hope this will change something as there is the hope, at least for me, that Blatter may also be detained,” he said. The veteran FIFA boss did win support from the Asian Football Confederation, which has its own recent history of corruption allegations. AFC members hold 47 of the 209 votes in the FIFA election, third only behind Africa's CAF (56 votes) and UEFA (54). “The indictment alleges corruption that is rampant, systemic and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States,” US attorney general Loretta Lynch said. The court indictment said that in the bidding for the 2010 tournament, which went to South Africa, some bribes were handed over in a briefcase stuffed with $10,000 bundles of cash. South Africa dismissed the claims as “baseless” and demanded proof of the allegations. Russia's foreign ministry accused the United States of illegally applying its judicial force “far beyond its borders.” — Agencies
