Fifa is facing the collapse of lucrative World Cup sponsorship deals following the darkest day in its history which saw senior officials arrested on suspicion of “rampant” corruption.
Visa threatened to break off its contract while other global brands such as Nike, adidas and Budweiser issued strongly-worded statements putting pressure on Fifa to take immediate action to restore its tattered reputation.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is under heavy pressure to resign before tomorrow’s planned leadership election in Zurich after US investigators blew the lid yesterday on decades of “rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted” corruption.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said a UK politician in the same position as Mr Blatter “would be struggling to cling on”.
“There’s no doubt, and there’s been no doubt for many years, that Fifa needs to clean up its act,” he told Sky News.
“There are millions, perhaps billions, of football fans around the world who want to enjoy the game, who want to know that the game is clean and who are repeatedly frustrated about these allegations about the way that international football is run.
“It looks very much like it’s going to be the commercial sponsors who use their power to insist that this happens.”
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