Sepp Blatter expects at least one member of FIFA's 24-man ruling panel to leave his post because of the ISL kickbacks case. “It does look like some people won't be able to stay on the executive committee,” Blatter told a German newspaper in an interview published Sunday. Blatter's comment could refer to Ricardo Teixeira, who heads the Brazilian 2014 World Cup organizing committee and has been linked to the 10-year-old scandal that has cast a shadow on much of the FIFA president's reign. FIFA has shed four executive committee members in the past year who were banned or resigned in bribery and vote-rigging scandals. FIFA has promised to publish Swiss court papers next month identifying senior officials who took payments from ISL. The marketing agency owned World Cup television rights until its 2001 bankruptcy with debts of around $300 million. In 2010, FIFA said two senior officials repaid kickbacks then worth $5 million on condition of anonymity. It has since blocked the court in Zug from releasing documents. British broadcaster BBC has named the officials as Teixeira and his former father-in-law Joao Havelange, the longtime FIFA president who Blatter succeeded in 1998.
