体坛英语新闻：FIFA must be overhauled, says PACE President

STRASBOURG, May 28 (Xinhua) -- "To be credible, FIFA must lance the boil and overhaul its governance," declared Anne Brasseur, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Thursday.

Brasseur spoke following the Wednesday arrests on corruption charges of several top FIFA officials in Zurich, just two days before the most important annual meeting of the football's world governing body.

"Football's global body is once again shaken by an indescribable scandal only two days before its Congress. Whatever the result of the inquiry, it is imperative that FIFA continue to reform the governance of this organization," the president continued.

9 of 14 men arrested are former or current FIFA executives, and they are accused of fraud and soliciting bribes for as much as 150 million U.S. dollars over thirty years in a United States corruption investigation. The US case argues that the men corrupted world football for their own financial benefit.

"These arrests are not a surprise, given the criticisms made over many years," she asserted.

In tandem with the US corruption investigation into officials, Swiss police have announced a criminal investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup selection processes, awarded to Russia and Qatar, respectively.

The PACE general assembly itself passed a resolution in April calling on FIFA to re-run the bid process for the 2022 World Cup, calling the selection process "fundamentally undermined by illegality," after evidence was discovered which suggested irregular payments of large sums of money were made to secure votes for the Qatari bid.

"There must be swift action to protect football, which is the victim of these never-ending scandals. Football - and sport in general - must not become a lawless zone. We need a reformed FIFA, capable of upholding sporting ethics and human rights, starting with Qatar," the president declared.

While former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and current vice-president Jeffrey Webb have been charged, President Sepp Blatter has not been accused. He is under increasing pressure to resign, however, with first-tier corporate sponsors such as Adidas, Coca-Cola, and Visa showing disappointment with FIFA, and world leaders such as David Cameron publically calling on Blatter to quit.

Blatter was largely expected to be reelected to his fifth term as president of the football's world governing body on Friday, though even if he chooses not to resign, groups such as UEFA, the European Football governing body, are threatening to boycott the vote if it is not postponed.