Blatter begins FIFA shake-up

Sepp Blatter is clearing out the FIFA house Keystone Archive

The president of FIFA, Switzerland's Sepp Blatter, has begun a shake-up of staff at football's world governing body.

On Wednesday, the football association revealed that six members of staff had been fired, just 24 hours after an announcement that FIFA’s director of communications, Keith Cooper, had also been given his marching orders.

Cooper – who was the main spokesman during the recently concluded World Cup jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan – was dismissed on Tuesday just hours before he was due to leave on vacation.

In a statement, FIFA said it had “parted company” with seven employees – including Cooper – on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“The decision to terminate or not to extend these employees’ contracts comes as part of FIFA’s restructuring process,” the statement read.

The latest staff shake-up follows the departure of the organisation’s general secretary, Michel Zen-Ruffinen, who left FIFA after a public and bitter row with Blatter prior to the latter’s re-election as the association’s president at a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, at the end of May.

FIFA has confirmed that Blatter – who easily held off a challenge for the presidency from African soccer chief, Issa Hayatou – will present a proposal concerning the future structure of world football’s governing body to the executive committee at its next meeting in September.

swissinfo with agencies