FIFA President Sepp Blatter to step down amid corruption scandal

Sepp Blatter
(Image credit: Alessandro Della Bella/Getty Images)

FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Tuesday announced that he would step down from his post following the election of a new leader at an "extraordinary congress" of the organization. He said the congress is to be convened "as rapidly as possible."

The announcement, made at a press conference in Zurich, was a surprise, coming just days after Blatter won re-election to a fifth term amidst allegations that top FIFA officials had engaged in a massive, decades-long bribery ring.

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Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.