La Paz, June 4 (IANS) Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed several football legends, including Diego Maradona, as potential candidates to lead world soccer body FIFA.
Any new FIFA chief should emerge from among Portugal’s Luis Figo, the French Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane, or Argentina’s Maradona, Morales said on Wednesday, according to the state Bolivian News Agency (ABI).
The current president of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), Joseph Blatter, announced Tuesday he will be stepping down in the wake of bribery scandals that have led to the arrest so far of seven high-level former and active officials.
“The new leaders must be footballers, former World Cup winners,” Morales told reporters covering an official event in La Paz, Xinhua news agency reported.
Morales has also called on the head of the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF), Carlos Chavez, to resign.
“Carlos Chavez should resign for the good of football. It is the obligation, the enormous responsibility of athletes to transform the structure of football,” he said.
Chavez is being investigated in Bolivia for allegedly accepting a bribe of 1.5 to 7.5 million U.S. dollars. He has denied any wrongdoing.