FIFA president Blatter to stand down in 2006

Sepp Blatter has said he will stand down from his role as FIFA president in 2006.

Blatter, who will be 70 in 2006, said in an interview with the December issue of Sports Business magazine that he would leave at the end of his second four-year term as the head of soccer's world governing body.

"I have said I am in the second half of the football game," Blatter told Sport Business.

"From the very beginning I said my presidency will not be more than two mandates."

"I am now in the second mandate and at the end of it I will be 70 years old. I think it will be the correct time then to leave the organisation."

Blatter was re-elected in May on the eve of the World Cup Finals in South Korea and Japan, defeating Cameroon's Issa Hayatou, the head of the Confederation of African Football.

He said he would begin considering a suitable replacement in 2004, the year in which FIFA celebrate their 100th anniversary.

"Let me go first to the 2004 centenary festivities and then at that time I will be able to foresee who should or could be in such a position," Blatter added.

Blatter overcame accusations of financial mismanagement and corruption to win his second term in office, but the Swiss said his conscience was clear.

"I don't mind how I am seen," he said. "I don't care."

"I would have done the job according to my conscience, according to the mission I have received from the congress in 1998 and 2002 and I will do it the best I can."