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Blatter chairs emergency FIFA meeting as scandal grows

FIFA president Sepp Blatter (L) gestures next to South Africa's Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula during a media briefing in Johannesburg May 21, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer

ZURICH (Reuters) - FIFA President Sepp Blatter chaired an emergency meeting with representatives from FIFA's six confederations on Thursday following the wave of arrests of soccer officials including two FIFA vice-presidents in Zurich on Wednesday. The FIFA emergency committee rarely meets and two of its nominated members Jeffrey Webb, the president of CONCACAF and Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay, the South American confederation president, were not present as they were among those detained on Wednesday. A FIFA representative said: "There was a meeting today with the president and the representatives from the confederations to discuss the current situation." The rare meeting of the emergency committee comes one day before FIFA's Congress is due to elect a new president and Blatter, seeking a fifth term of office is resisting calls from European soccer governing body UEFA to postpone the election for six months. Blatter has also not been seen in public since the latest corruption crisis began early on Wednesday morning. (Reporting by Mike Collett)