FIFA

"You will agree with me, these are unprecedented and difficult times for FIFA. The events of yesterday have cast a long shadow over football and over this week’s congress. Actions of individuals, if proven, bring shame and humiliation on football and demand action and change from us all. We cannot allow the reputation of football and FIFA to be dragged through the mud any longer. It has to stop here and now. I know many people hold me ultimately responsible for the actions and reputation of the global football community, whether it’s a decision for the hosting of the World Cup, or a corruption scandal. We, or I, cannot monitor everyone all of the time. If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it. But it must fall to me to bear the responsibility for the reputation and well-being of our organisation and to find a way forward to fix things. I will not allow the actions of a few to destroy the hard work and integrity of the vast majority of those who work so hard for football. I must stress that those who are corrupt in football are in a thin minority, like in society. But, like in society, they must be caught and held responsible for their actions..."

"... Football cannot be the exception to the rule. That is our responsibility as FIFA and we will co-operate with all authorities to make sure than anyone involved in wrongdoing, from top to bottom, is discovered and punished. There can be no place for corruption of any kind. The next few months will not be easy for FIFA. I’m sure more bad news may follow. But it is necessary to begin to restore trust in our organisation. Let this be the turning point. More needs to be done to make sure everyone in football to make sure everyone behaves responsibility and ethically, and everywhere also outside of the field of play, where there is no referee, no boundaries and no time limit. Football, the fans, the players, the clubs, the world, deserves so much more and we must respond. Tomorrow, the congress, we have the opportunity to begin on what will be a long and difficult road to rebuilding trust. We have lost that trust, at least a part of it, and we must now earn it back. We must earn it back through the decisions we make, through the expectations we place on each other and through the way we behave individually. The vast majority, we are all in football and we like this game, not for greed, not for exploitation, not for power, but the cause of love for the game, for this game."

"And here in America, we have big events coming up. Next year we have the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. I’m so honored to be president during that. That’s been a big event. They’ve been talking about it for 10 years. We also have the World Cup, and I understand Gianni — Gianni is in the room — Infantino. He was very instrumental in helping us get it — he’s there with you someplace, I think — and I want to thank him for that. And then we have the Olympics coming up, which I was instrumental in getting, also, in my first term. And who would have known that by skipping a term, I would get the Olympics? I was upset. I said, “You know, I got the Olympics to come and I won’t be president.” But it turned out, through a stroke of luck or whatever you might call it, that I’m going to be president during the World Cup and the Olympics and the 250th anniversary."