27th May, 2015
FIFA spokesman, Walter De-Gregorio, said at a news conference in Zurich on Wednesday that the body planned to go ahead with its congress and the presidential election in spite of the arrests and the World Cup probe.
De-Gregorio said Blatter was not affected by the probes and remains relaxed.
“He is not dancing in his office. But he knows it is the consequence of what we initiated”, he said.
De-Gregorio said FIFA initiated the process on November 18 by lodging a federal complaint.
He said the exercise was obviously not good in terms of image and reputation but good for cleaning up.
De-Gregorio said the US Justice Department has confirmed that four defendants and two indicted companies in the marketing rights case have already pleaded guilty.
They include Charles Blazer, the former CONCAFAF General Secretary and former U.S. representative on the FIFA Executive Committee; as well as Jose Hawilla, owner of Brazil-based sports marketing firm Traffic Group.
He said two of Hawilla’s companies also pleaded guilty.