UEFA Executive Committee Says Corruption 'deeply Rooted' At FIFA

The executive committee of Europe's national soccer associations called on the sport's global governing body, FIFA, to delay Friday's planned vote for the presidency following Wednesday's indictment in the U.S. of nine soccer officials and five others on allegations of corruption over a 24-year span. In a harshly worded statement following an emergency meeting, the UEFA board said the charges "show, once again, that corruption is deeply rooted in FIFA's culture." It warned that the upcoming FIFA meeting "risks to turn into a farce and therefore the European associations will have to consider carefully if they should even attend this Congress and caution a system, which, if it is not stopped, will ultimately kill football," as soccer is called in the rest of the world. UEFA members meet Thursday and will decide then "on what further steps need to be taken to protect the game." Ahead of the indictments and arrests, FIFA President Sepp Blatter had been expected to be re-elected to a fifth four-year term. Blatter was not indicted on Wednesday, and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch declined to comment at a press conference on whether he could still be charged.