Hayatou steps in for Blatter

09 October 2015 - 02:01 By Reuters and AFP

Cameroon's Issa Hayatou will take over as interim Fifa president following the provisional suspension of Sepp Blatter in a corruption scandal, Fifa said yesterday. Spain's Angel Maria Villar was in line to take over at European governing body Uefa after its president, Michel Platini, was also handed a provisional 90-day ban by Fifa.Fifa's statutes say the most senior vice-president stands in for the president. That position is held by Hayatou, who has been president of the Confederation of African Football since 1988 and on Fifa's executive committee since 1990.Hayatou, 69, will have to steer the organisation towards an election in February to replace Blatter, while Swiss and US authorities continue investigations into corruption .In 2011, Hayatou was reprimanded by the International Olympics Committee's ethics commission after he admitted being paid by Fifa's former marketing agency International Sport and Leisure in 1995.Villar is also reported to be facing a probe related to Spain's bid with Portugal for the 2018 World Cup.Lawyers for Blatter said he was "disappointed" the ethics watchdog had failed to follow its own rules by not letting him give evidence."Blatter looks forward to the opportunity to present evidence that will demonstrate that he did not engage in any misconduct, criminal or otherwise," said a statement by Zurich lawyers Lorenz Erni, Erni Brun Forrer and US-based Richard Cullen.Fifa should consider an external candidate to succeed Blatter, while also accelerating their reform process as the soccer body must regain credibility quickly, IOC president Thomas Bach said yesterday."Enough is enough. We hope that now everyone at Fifa has at last understood they cannot continue to remain passive," Bach said. ..

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