Calls for Blatter to resign mount

BERLIN - Joseph Blatter must resign as president of the world governing football body Fifa in the wake of a kickbacks affair involving former Fifa top officials, German football league president Reinhard Rauball said.Rauball told Saturday’s edition of Die Welt paper that Blatter acted in a negligent way when he did not inform the Fifa member federations about the schemes involving now-defunct marketing company ISL.“As things stand now Sepp Blatter should hand over his official duties to someone else,” Rauball said.Documents released this week in Switzerland said that former Fifa president Joao Havelange, 96, pocketed at least 1.5 million Swiss francs (1.53 million dollars) in March 1997 from ISL.Fellow Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira, a former Fifa executive committee member and Brazilian football federation (CBF) president, received more than 12 million Swiss francs from 1974-1998.The documents also suggest the Blatter, in office since 1998 after eight earlier years as general secretary, know of the schemes. Blatter said he could not be held responsible because the “commission” was not a crime at the time.Rauball said he talked to Blatter on Friday and voiced his reservations.“He knew of these money movements, even though from much later onwards. That’s why he acted negligent towards the member federations,” Rauball said.Fifa needs someone in its reform process who is ready to start from zero. It is always difficult to involve someone who is part of the circumstances that made the reform process necessary.”