Fifa's internal revolt continues as second FA exec resigns

Fifa president Sepp Blatter faces fallout after his re-election. Photo / AP

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is facing an intensifying internal revolt, with a second Football Association official resigning yesterday from their Fifa post and other senior administrators openly considering their positions.

Heather Rabbatts, one of the English FA's two independent directors, stepped down from Fifa's anti-discrimination task force following the re-election of Blatter as president, while Michel D'Hooghe, who has been on Fifa's executive committee since 1988, said yesterday: "I no longer want to participate in this situation."

UEFA president Michel Platini will also consider following the lead of David Gill, the FA vice-chairman, in refusing to attend Fifa executive committee meetings and is now expected to gauge the appetite for a European-wide walkout. The majority of UEFA's executive committee is likely to back the stance of its president.

D'Hooghe, who is also head of Fifa's medical committee, said: "I thought the tornado that struck Fifa would change some people's mind. That maybe happened to a minor extent, but clearly insufficient to create a new majority.

"I have been shouldering the medical responsibility at Fifa for 27 years, but cannot reconcile myself with the institution now I understand that there are a lot of corruption cases.

"My conclusion is clear: I no longer want to participate in this situation." If there is an abscess, a bit of medication is not enough. You have to use the scalpel and cut it open. I want the structure to be totally transparent."

Rabbatts had been a member of Fifa's anti-discrimination task force chaired by Jeffrey Webb, the Fifa vice-president from the Cayman Islands who was one of the seven officials arrested in Zurich on corruption charges last week.

In her resignation letter to Jerome Valcke, the Fifa secretary general, Rabbatts said: "Like many in the game I find it unacceptable that so little has been done to reform Fifa and it is clear from the re-election of president Blatter that the challenges facing Fifa and the ongoing damage to the reputation of football's world governing body are bound to continue to overshadow and undermine the credibility of any work in the anti-discrimination arena and beyond."

New Zealand barrister Nick Davidson who stood down from the ethics committee, raised concerns over the report by Michael Garcia into World Cup bidding. "Investigators need to know the whole story. Fifa's investigation team is independent, determined and very capable. There are some matters which must be addressed to make it as effective as it needs to be.

"At the heart of the Fifa building, Fifa-branded suits, in my view, are incompatible with that independence. Telecommunications must be fully secure and I had my reservations about that."

The spotlight will turn this week to UEFA ahead of the Champions League final and whether Platini is prepared to follow through his call last week for Blatter to resign with decisive action to lead change. UEFA, though, will not boycott the World Cup and Platini said that its 17 members will be "open to all options".

Blatter denies any wrongdoing.