CRI听力:Sepp Blatter Resigns as FIFA President

Sepp Blatter has announced his resignation as president of FIFA. The surprise announcement comes less than a week after he was re-elected to a fifth term.

For more on this, CRI's Huang Shan reports.

The newly re-elected FIFA President announced his resignation from football's governing body amid an ongoing corruption crisis.

Sepp Blatter says he reached the decision after thoroughly reviewing his experience in FIFA.

"I have thoroughly considered my presidency and the last 40 years of my life which were closely related to FIFA and this wonderful sport of football. I appreciate and love FIFA more than anything else and I only want to do the best for football and for FIFA, our institution."

A special congress will be held to elect the new FIFA president. A date for that has not been announced.

However, until that election, Blatter will continue to carry out his functions as the head of the organization.

Blatter further stresses that FIFA needs a profound change and he will not join the new election.

"I decided to stand again to be elected because I was convinced it was the best option. The elections are over, but the challenges that FIFA are facing have not come to an end. FIFA needs a profound restructuring. But as I will not stand in new elections, I am now free from the constraints of an election. I will be in a position to focus on implementing ambitious and profound reforms that go beyond our earlier efforts."

The 79-year-old was re-elected as FIFA's head for a fifth consecutive term just two days after several top official from the football governing body were arrested due to a US prosecution investigating corruption at FIFA.

Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan was Blatter's only competition in the election and quit the vote in the second round. He says he welcomes Blatter's decision to step down, adding that more effort should be made to improve FIFA's image.

"Well, I think we have to focus on football, focus on reality, and so on. That's it. And I think that we have to take a new step forward. I think that, you know, to me the idea of this organisation being a company, what have you. It's a service organisation. It's a service for football. And we have to reverse the pyramid. We have to put the priority of players and fans above anyone else. That's what I've thought all along. And that's what I think for the future."

Sala Sabra, vice-president of the Jordanian football federation, is quoted by AFP as saying that Prince Ali will stand in new elections for the FIFA presidency.

For CRI, I'm Huang Shan.