Blatter steps down from IOC

Zurich, August 3

FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday relieved himself from the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) ex-officio membership, seven months prior to being replaced as the head of world football's governing body.

Blatter would ordinarily have been re-elected for another eight-year term as a procedural matter at the ongoing IOC session in Kuala Lumpur along with more than a dozen other members, but would be required to stand down when he leaves FIFA at the end of February, reports stuff.co.nz.

"Mr Blatter wrote me a letter on July 23 informing me that it would be inappropriate to seek another eight-year term as he was retiring from his position at FIFA in seven months when a new president will be selected on February 26, 2015," IOC president Thomas Bach said.

The 79-year-old Swiss was re-elected for a fifth term as FIFA president here on May 29 but later announced that he would lay down his mandate in the wake of a crisis in FIFA.

FIFA was thrown into turmoil two days ahead of its presidential election when more than a dozen officials and sports marketing executives were indicted by the United States on bribery, money laundering and wire -fraud charges.

Although Blatter has not been accused of any wrongdoing, his stewardship has been heavily criticised and his troubled reign, which began in 1998, will come to an end when he is replaced by the winner of FIFA's next presidential election on February 26.

The Swiss has been an ex-officio IOC member since 1999. —IANS