Blatter ready to reform FIFA practice

FIFA will change the way it investigates corruption and is prepared to examine any “credible” evidence of past wrongdoing, president Sepp Blatter has promised.

Hailing a “historic day for FIFA’s reform process” after a series of scandals, Blatter said a revamped ethics committee would have separate investigating and prosecuting units with new, independent leaders.

Blatter said the proposal presented by FIFA’s anti-corruption adviser Mark Pieth got strong backing from his executive committee, some of whom have recently been cleared of corruption allegations by the existing – and often maligned – ethics body.

“Unanimously they agreed to this new approach in our, let’s say, efforts for more transparency and integrity,” Blatter said at a news conference yesterday to reveal advances in a promised two-year drive to clean up the world football body.

But Pieth’s sharp criticism of FIFA’s past failings was not directly addressed and the timetable for much of his suggested reforms was pushed into 2013.