Football's world governing body is holding an executive committee meeting in Zurich, as they try and clean up their image from recent corruption scandals. And this latest meeting comes as Swiss authorities were given the right to view the emails of the suspended Jerome Valcke. The secretary general was relieved of his duties last week because of his role in an alleged ticket re-selling scheme.
The meeting was being held in the organization's headquarters in Switzerland. The agenda for the two-day meeting include preparations for the various FIFA competitions, the task force on women's football, the reform process as well as the approval of the agenda for the extraordinary FIFA Congress in February to elect a new president. And the current boss Sepp Blatter told his scandal-plagued federation's 209 member associations that failure to support reform would amount to a betrayal of millions of soccer fans.
Among the candidates up for the presidency is former Brazil forward Zico. But the football legend is struggling with the rule which requires potential candidates to present letters of support from five national football associations by October 26, four months before the election. The Brazilian says most FAs are afraid of backing the wrong candidate and suffering reprisals from their continental confederations.
"Any sportsman will feel they are a victim of this ruling. It's your history in the sport which should be important, not whether or not you can provide a letter for someone," said Zico, former Brazilian footballer.