Gill rejects Fifa executive committee role

The fallout from Sepp Blatter’s re-election as president of scandal-plagued FIFA continued on Saturday with Football Association vice-president David Gill confirming he would not take up his post on FIFA’s elite Executive Board.

The 57-year-old Englishman– who was a well respected chief executive of Manchester United from 2003-2013 –said he did not think being the British vice-president of FIFA would do his reputation any good while it is headed by Blatter and plagued by corruption investigations. Gill had said on Thursday he would not be able to serve under Blatter, who was re-elected on Friday -- his sole opponent Prince Ali bin al-Hussein withdrawing just before the second round after the 79-year-old Swiss had fallen seven votes short of the <g data-gr-id="9">two thirds</g> majority required for a first round–despite two separate ongoing investigations into corruption at FIFA. “This action is not something I take <g data-gr-id="11">lightly</g> but the terribly damaging events of the last three days have convinced me it is not appropriate to be a member of the FIFA executive committee under the current leadership,” Gill said.