A protester (C) gestures in front of FIFA president Sepp Blatter (L) during a press conference at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich Monday. As Blatter took his seat, a British comedian Simon Brodkin rose from a front-row seat to speak and shower the FIFA president with dollar bills. The comedian also tried to disrupt a performance by Kanye West at the Glastonbury festival in Britain last month. On Monday, he was ushered out of the auditorium at FIFA headquarters. — AP ZURICH — FIFA will hold a presidential election on Feb. 26, giving Sepp Blatter seven more months in power before leaving the scandal-tainted governing body. The date was chosen by FIFA's executive committee Monday, after Blatter announced plans to resign four days following his re-election in May amid American and Swiss criminal investigations into corruption. The 79-year-old Blatter, who first joined FIFA 40 years ago, has held onto the most world powerful job in world soccer since 1998. FIFA's 209 members, who elected Blatter to a fifth term in May, will return to Zurich next year to select a new president almost nine months after Blatter's resignation statement. Potential contenders include UEFA President Michel Platini and Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, who lost to Blatter in May. Former Brazil great Zico and Liberia football federation president Musa Bility have said they will seek the five nominations required by the Oct. 26 deadline. FIFA announced the election date shortly before a scheduled news conference by Blatter. The FIFA executive committee meeting was also due to discuss ways of reforming the organization to regain the trust of fans and sponsors, including presidential term limits. Prince Ali Monday joined World Cup sponsor Coca-Cola and former FIFA advisers Transparency International in calling for Blatter to be excluded from the process of shaping the organization's future after a litany of scandals on his watch. Prince Ali said that Blatter “cannot be permitted to plan his succession and manage this election process.” “President Blatter's resignation cannot be dragged out any longer. He must leave now,” Prince Ali, a FIFA vice president for four years until May, said. “An interim independent leadership must be appointed to administer the process of the elections, in addition to the reforms that are being discussed prior to the elections,” he added. Reformers want FIFA to appoint a respected figure from outside the sport to oversee the next election and reforms of FIFA. Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general from Ghana, has been mentioned for the role. “The rumors linking Mr. Annan to the FIFA job are just that: rumors,” Annan's office said, stressing that he is currently “fully committed” to other roles. Platini has support Four out of six continental soccer confederations would back Michel Platini, head of European soccer's governing body UEFA, to lead the sport's world governing body FIFA should he stand, a source close to UEFA said. Platini, who was re-elected for a third term as UEFA president earlier this year, is likely to decide within the next 10 days or so whether to run, the source added. Platini was repeatedly promised support at meetings with confederation representatives. As well as UEFA, the continental confederations representing South America (Conmebol), North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and Asia (AFC) have all reportedly told Platini they would back his candidacy for FIFA president. The other two confederations are Africa's CAF and Oceania's OFC. Platini was once considered Blatter's protege and a natural successor to the 79-year-old Swiss. The two have become rivals in the last year, however, and Platini urged Blatter not to stand for a fifth term in May. United States prosecutors threw FIFA into turmoil in May by indicting 14 sports marketing executives and soccer officials, including a number from soccer's governing body. Seven were arrested in a dawn raid on a luxury Zurich hotel just two days before the Congress at which Blatter was re-elected. — Agencies
