Fifa president Sepp Blatter hosted an emergency meeting yesterday to manage the crisis that hit the football federation on Wednesday when seven high-profile Fifa officials were arrested by Swiss police in Zurich on the request of US authorities.

“There was a meeting today with the president with the representatives from the confederations to discuss the current situation,” said Fifa spokesperson Delia Fischer in a statement.

Among those detained on Wednesday and pending extradition to the United States is Eduardo Li, member-elect of the Fifa executive committee and president of Costa Rica’s soccer federation, along with other top members of the South American Football Association (Conmebol) and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf).

A further seven have also been charged by US authorities with allegations of corruption including fraud, bribery and money laundering.

According to news reports, the European football association (UEFA) will not boycott Fifa’s 65th congress which will hold the federation’s presidential elections today, despite UEFA head Michel Platini asking Blatter to step down.

UEFA, together with other national football associations have publicly endorsed the 79-year-old Swiss’ only opposition candidate Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan in the May 29 vote.

Both the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have voiced their continued support for Blatter and have urged the vote to go on as planned, according to reports.

- Bernama-NNN-Agencies