FAI chief executive John Delaney has labelled FIFA's Sepp Blatter 'a lame duck president'.
It has been a dramatic week for FIFA, but Delaney is content that Blatter will relinquish his role as president only four days after being elected for a fifth term in office.
“The whole world or most people in the football world were quite pleased and happy to see the events yesterday,” Delaney said on Newstalk Radio this morning.
“It is like a movie. Every day brings a different dimension to it. All I can say is that I felt he was a lame duck president. When he got elected I said I felt it was the beginning of the end. There was a momentum.
“When you have the FBI, Swiss investigators, 35 or 36% of your member nations voting against you, pressure from sponsors and pressure from the world really. That is a huge pressure for anyone to take on their shoulders knowing that the world effectively don’t want you running world football.
“Some reality bit over the last 24 hours. He is shameless and I just wonder what triggered to push him over the line. We will eventually find out. It will come out in the wash.”
Delaney is adamant the actual reason for Blatter's departure will be known soon. “He spoke yesterday in his own bubble about the changes he is going to bring in over the next six months while he waits for the next president to come in. He never gave a clear rationale as to why he left.
“There is a reason and that reason will come out over the next period of time. I’ve no doubt about that.
“He is an emperor without clothes now. To be talking yesterday about how he is going to bring in all these reforms which he couldn’t bring in when he was previously elected. It is pretty much rubbish to me. He should leave the reforms to the new President, who hopefully will bring a new culture to FIFA.”
Delaney hopes UEFA's Michel Platini will run for FIFA president, but is worried that Blatter may already have made a deal with somebody.
“We will have to see who the runners and riders are. Prince Ali who got 73 votes said he will throw his name into the hat. Michel Platini is a very obvious candidate, he didn’t run the last time. I think he would garner a lot of support in UEFA and outside of UEFA because he is Michel Platini, a great footballer.
“We will watch closely to see who the Asians and Africans will put forward. A little bit of me wonders has Blatter done a deal to bring his own person forward. Over the next weeks we will see who is going forward I’d like to see Platini do it, but that doesn’t mean he will run for it.”
