Sepp Blatter will not attend the Women's World Cup final
Tuesday 30 June 2015 21:12, UK
Sepp Blatter will not travel to Canada for the final of the women's World Cup on July 5 for personal reasons, FIFA have confirmed.
Controversial FIFA President Blatter has promised to step down from his role amid ongoing American and Swiss investigations of corruption in world football.
Senior executives of Zurich-based FIFA were charged with corruption on May 27 by prosecutors in the United States over bids for major soccer tournaments dating back 24 years and involving up to $150 million in purported bribes.
US prosecutors have not accused Blatter of wrongdoing but his stewardship of world soccer's governing body is under scrutiny by authorities in the United States and Switzerland.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, who was involved in controversy relating to a $10m payment from FIFA to an account controlled by the disgraced former vice-president Jack Warner, will not be attending the World Cup final either.
A statement from FIFA said: "Due to their current commitments in Zurich, the FIFA President and the FIFA Secretary General will remain at the FIFA Headquarters."
It will be the first time Blatter has not presented the trophy to the winners of the women's competition, which is held every four years, since he became FIFA president in 1998.
Cullen said that FIFA Senior Vice President Issa Hayatou, of Cameroon, would preside at the trophy ceremony after the final in Vancouver instead.
Blatter said before the tournament began on June 6 that he was looking forward to being in Canada.
The tournament's semi-finals will be contested by the United States and Germany on Tuesday and England and Japan on Wednesday.
Investigations by US and Swiss authorities also include scrutiny of how FIFA awarded World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar for the 2018 and 2022 men's tournaments.
