FAI

chief executive

John Delaney

has confirmed that the association will follow Uefa’s lead in the

Fifa

presidential election this weekend in Zurich and vote against

Sepp Blatter

whose leadership, he says, has left the game’s governing body with an image problem.

In an interview with the BBC which promoted a certain amount of mirth on social media yesterday, Delaney suggested that Blatter had been in office long enough, is guilty of overstating his achievements and is generally regarded by those outside of his immediate sphere of influence as having stayed too long in the job.

“Regardless of the good he claims to have done during his tenure,” Delaney said, “he has to recognise that Fifa has an incredibly bad brand image. If he was doing the right thing by football, which he says he cares and loves, then he should step aside and let somebody else come forward and improve the image of the world game.

Private moments

“Blatter has had a hell of a run at it. But surely he knows, in his private moments, he must know, that outside of the voting chambers that the world, the football public, the players and supporters want change. We won’t be voting for him.”

Delaney went on to pay tribute to Michel Platini and the European federation, saying that Uefa, which provides substantial and critically important funding to the financially challenged FAI, had shown its openness to new ideas by implementing what he described as his idea to expand the European Championships and by adopting the Frenchman's proposal to spread Euro 2020 across 13 host nations.

Controversy

“Uefa’s image is very good, which is run by a good friend of mine, Michel Platini,” he said. “I can go to Uefa and ask, ‘Can we increase the Euros from 16 teams to 24,’ which I did, they get that. You can talk to Uefa about 13 countries hosting the tournament in 2020. It gets discussed and it gets done. But at Fifa you can’t.

“I have no problems telling anybody, telling the world now, that we will not be voting for Sepp Blatter. There is a permanent controversy at Fifa.”

The decision to abandon Blatter, who the association has previously supported and who remains favourite to win, was formally taken at a meeting of the FAI’s board where Platini’s firm opposition to the Swiss is believed to have been a significant factor.

Earlier this week, Platini, who had been widely expected to run himself until Blatter reneged on a commitment made in 2011 that he would stand down after his fourth term if he secured it, said his rival was attempting to stay on because of a “fear of emptiness” that was the result of having been at the top of Fifa for so long.

He said he should nevertheless put the interests of Fifa before his own and step aside. Platini went on to firmly endorse Blatter’s rival. “I am firmly convinced that Ali . . . would make a great Fifa president. He has everything it takes.”