Monday 20 July 2015 19:53, UK
FIFA have announced that they will hold an extraordinary congress to elect a new president on 26 February 2016 and Sepp Blatter has confirmed that he will not be a candidate.
Having been re-elected as president on 29 May, Blatter announced four days later that he was going to stand down after a pair of investigations were announced into corruption at world football’s ruling body.
However, Blatter’s decision not to resign immediately has led to speculation that he may yet put himself up for election once again next year.
But, when questioned at a press conference in Zurich on Monday, he said: “On February 26, FIFA will have a new president.
"I will not be a candidate for the election in 2016 and there will be election for a new president. I cannot be the new president because I am the old president.
"On February 26 FIFA will have a new president and I think I will go back to my work as a journalist - this time I will go to radio as this is the most popular item in information."
Blatter also announced that FIFA is to set up an 11-man taskforce which will propose reforms aimed at cleaning up the organisation, following a series of damaging scandals.
The planned reforms include "centralised integrity checks for Executive Committee members, the introduction of term limits and higher standards of governance at all levels of football structures."
The task force will present its conclusions to the executive committee in September, and this in turn can suggest reforms to FIFA's Congress, which has the power to alter the federation's statutes.
Blatter said: "Today, in the extraordinary committee, we have taken important decisions. We have approved the date of the extraordinary elective congress, 26 February.
"There, a new president of FIFA will be elected. Naturally, I am keen to know who it will be.
"And we have done something else. Today, at this extraordinary meeting, we have taken very important decisions and I was so happy at the end of this meeting.
"We have taken a resolution that we want to go again into a reform process. We had a reform process in 2011 but there are a few points that were not dealt with."
The date for the presidential elections was set by FIFA's executive committee on Monday and candidates for the position will have to be nominated before October 26.
UEFA president Michel Platini has emerged as the favourite after being urged to run by four of the six FIFA confederations, while former Brazil great Zico and Liberia football federation president Musa Bility have confirmed that they will seek the five nominations required.
Platini welcomed the creation of the task force but remains tight-lipped about whether he will stand.
He said: "Along with the rest of FIFA’s Executive Committee, I feel that the creation of a task force with internal and external members to deal specifically with reforms is an important step towards improving overall processes and transparency within the organisation.
“We must now make sure that the reforms outlined today will be undertaken in a swift and effective manner. As I have said various times in the recent past, we need to reform FIFA and we need to do it now.
“Regarding the election, we now have a concrete date which means we can look forward to new leadership which will surely bring with it new ideas and new solutions. This is an exciting time for FIFA because we can work together to improve it and restructure it for the good of the game.”
England's FIFA vice-president David Gill has given his personal endorsement to Platini.
“My own personal view is that Michel has done a first-class job at UEFA," said Gill.
"He has not officially put his name forward yet, but he is a football man, he has the experience and, like any good leader, he has a lot of good people around him because you cannot do it alone."
