Sepp Blatter, the world football chief, has promised that a "new Fifa" will choose the 2018 and 2022 hosts for the World Cup next month but admitted that changes would be needed in the future. Blatter was speaking at a news conference in Geneva following his organisation's decision on Thursday to fine and ban two of its executive committee members following an investigation into allegations that they offered to sell their votes in support of a country bidding to host the 2018 World Cup.
The Fifa president said on Friday that he was satisfied with the outcome of the corruption investigation, which also punished four other senior officials.
"I am very satisfied, but I'm not happy, you cannot be happy when you have to sanction members of our family, it is not a pleasure, but I'm satisfied with the work done by the ethics committee," he said.
Reynald Temarii, a Tahitian, and Nigeria's Amos Adamu allegedly told Sunday Times journalists posing as lobbyists that they would endorse the bids to host the World Cup in return for large sums of money.
Adamu has been forbidden from engaging in any form of football activities for three years, and he will be fined about $10,000. Temarii has been banned from football activities for one year and fined approximately $5,000.
Both men were suspended temporarily last month pending the full investigation by the ethics committee.
Blatter admitted that the decision on punishments had not "found the total support of all of the members of the executive committee" but that the committee "abides by the decisions handed down by the ethics committee".
Blatter said all of those sanctioned would be able to appeal against the rulings.
Collusion claims
Andrew Simmons, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Geneva, said: "He [Blatter] didn't really seem to be in buoyant form but it was clear that he feels that this whole thing is now put behind Fifa. He's drawn a line under the whole affair.
"He described the Sunday Times expose, the sting operation, effectively as something he said was unfair ... and he was unhappy about it, he did not welcome what they did."
Blatter said he was optimistic and looking forward to the last few days before the bid decisions on December 2 but also said that collusion was difficult to avoid.
"You cannot avoid collusion, but if there is something wrong in such collusion, then somebody should intervene," he said.
"You find collusion in politics, in elections ... where two parties are enemies during the year but then they go together. That's collusion, this has not been banned."
The ethics committee found no evidence of alleged collusion between the Spain/Portugal and Qatar bids.
England, Russia, Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium are bidding to host the 2018 World Cup with Japan, South Korea, Australia, United States and Qatar the candidates for 2022.
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