IT has been a dramatic morning with six football officials arrested in Switzerland and FAI chief executive John Delaney feels it is ‘time for change’ at FIFA.
Swiss police have also raided FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich to seize documents ahead of Friday’s congress where President Sepp Blatter is seeking a fifth term in office.
"It seems like something out of a mafia movie," Delaney said on RTE Radio One.
"Nothing would surprise me with FIFA, that’s the sad thing about FIFA. UEFA is a tremendous organisation to work.
"When you wake up this morning and hear those events, it’s shocking and very saddening.
"The awards of World Cups are always covert and then there are independent reports that we don’t get to see. We’re told we’d get redacted versions and we don’t get those.
"There is always controversy around FIFA and it’s governance and the one person who has always been at the head of that is Sepp Blatter and he has to take some responsibility for that and that’s why I said yesterday that we wouldn’t be voting for him."
Delaney expects Blatter to win the Presidency battle again. “Cultural change has to come from the top and Sepp Blatter has presided over this for a number of years.
“He’ll win the election if it takes place on Friday, but we won’t be voting for him.
“We’ve a meeting of the UEFA federation tomorrow, the 53-54 associations in Europe, we’ll meet to determine our strategy.
“Hopefully people will take the view that it is time for change.
“There are 208 or 209 votes, UEFA have 53 for Prince Ali to win he would need to gather 105 votes. Up until this morning, there wasn’t really a chance.
“The events of this morning may change that, but I’ll only know that when I get to Zurich later and attend the UEFA meeting in the morning.
“There could be radical things done like saying we won’t participate in FIFA tournaments. That would be radical and there have been mutterings like that and we’ll see what tomorrow morning brings.
"Some of the bigger countries feel that FIFA isn't being run correctly."
"He (Blatter) lives in a cocoon, he lives in the voting chambers and not in the real world. His view is that he's the President of FIFA and he's voted in by the members and all these allegations are nothing to do with him, there about other people.
"If he really cares for the game, he'll step down as President."
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