German Football League (DFL) president Reinhard Rauball is dubious about the intention of Sepp Blatter to resign, and says the Fifa president should step down with immediate effect.
Rauball has also urged Uefa president Michel Platini to fully clear up a payment he received from FIFA.
Rauball also said in an interview with Thursday’s edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that world football governance needs a radical overhaul with professional structures and greater influence for the more important footballing nations.
Blatter is suspected of mismanagement by Swiss authorities in connection with a (likely TV) contract with the Caribbean and a “disloyal payment” of 2 million Swiss francs (dollars) to Platini in 2011 for work done for Fifa between 1999 and 2002.
Both have denied any wrongdoing and Blatter does not want to resign before the planned date at an extraordinary FIFA congress on February 26.
“I strongly urge Mr Blatter to make his announced resignation reality in February, at the latest. (But) I am not sure if he will really resign,” said Rauball, who is also president of Bundesliga top club Borussia Dortmund.
Blatter’s former PR adviser Klaus Stoehlker has confirmed that the 79-year-old had told Fifa staff that he could retain his position if the Exco decied to cancel next year’s presidential elections.
Rauball urged Platini, currently seen as the leading candidate to succeed Blatter despite the controversial ‘disloyal payment’ , to clarify he circumstances of the payments “in a credible way – and I stress credible.”
“What Platini has told us so far is just not enough,” he said.
Platini gave an interview on Wednesday in which he claimed the money was payment for work he carried out for Blatter, but was unable to explain why there was a nine year delay between the work being done and the payment being received.
With US and Swiss authorities also investigating corruption in football, Rauball said that Fifa could be forced to reform itself completely, or that a new governing body could be created, “with a professional board and an according supervisory board.”
“World football could be forced to move and give itself new structures,” he said. “It’s about time to consider a plan B. The U.S. justice department has classified FIFA as influenced by organised crime and corruption.”