Outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s 16-year term as an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member ended yesterday when he did not seek re-election.
Blatter was among a group of IOC members up for re-election for another eight-year term. However, IOC president Thomas Bach said Blatter informed him by letter on July 23 that the head of the world soccer body would not stand again.
“He does not deem it to be appropriate to stand for re-election for eight years knowing that after seven months his term would come to an end,” Bach said on the final day of the IOC’s general assembly in Kuala Lumpur.
Blatter, beset by a corruption scandal at FIFA and whose presidential term is to end following a Feb. 26 election, did not attend the meetings in Kuala Lumpur.
The FIFA president, who usually attends the annual IOC meetings, has not been accused of wrongdoing, but made the decision to resign in the wake of the arrests in May of some of his close associates in Zurich by Swiss police on behalf of US authorities. Seven soccer officials face corruption charges.
Blatter, an IOC member since 1999, would have had to retire from his IOC term next year anyway, because he turns 80 in March. The IOC confirmed that Blatter’s membership ended yesterday.
The other two members who were not re-elected — both due to age restrictions — were former World Archery president Jim Easton of the US and Andres Botero of Colombia.
Fourteen other IOC members were re-elected for eight-year terms, while Gunilla Lindberg of Sweden was re-elected to another four-year term on the IOC’s executive board.
Two new members were elected to the IOC: Nenad Lalovic, head of wrestling’s world governing body, and Diagna Ndiaye, president of Senegal’s national Olympic committee.
Lalovic’s placing completed a remarkable comeback after his sport was threatened with exclusion from the Olympics.
The Serbian won the backing of all 83 members who voted.
The IOC dropped wrestling as an Olympic event in February 2013, sparking a crisis in the sport, which has been in the Olympics since it started.
Lalovic became president of the global federation now known as United World Wrestling. Following an aggressive campaign, in September the same year it was voted back onto the program for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
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