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Australia: Blatter must be keep word on reform

Australia is still smarting after its A$45 million ($47.7m) bid to host the 2022 World Cup garnered just one solitary vote in last December's ballot of the 22-man FIFA executive committee.

Blatter was re-elected unopposed on Wednesday for a fourth four-year term as FIFA president and immediately pushed through changes designed to make the choice of World Cup hosts more democratic and beef up the fight against corruption.

"Reform is necessary," he told ABC radio. "What FIFA requires is action that took place in the IOC after Salt Lake City when the IOC cleaned up its game and that is exactly what FIFA now requires.

"And of course the voting members of FIFA need to ensure that president Blatter is held to his word.

"He has said he will reform the organisation and it's time for that to take place."

The scandal which has hit FIFA over the last month centres on Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Mohamed Bin Hammam's ultimately aborted campaign to take on Blatter in the presidential election.

It has also, however, re-ignited the debate over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup finals to Bin Hammam's home country Qatar.

The head of the influential German Football Association, Theo Zwanziger, said FIFA could not afford to ignore any suspicions of corruption in the process. Qatar's bid team strongly deny any wrongdoing.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) chief executive Ben Buckley confirmed Australia had voted against the English FA's motion to delay Blatter's re-election and said he was confident the Swiss would implement reforms.

"Well certainly the language coming from the president and the rest of the FIFA executives today was positive in that it would look to reform the decision-making process, particularly around the World Cup," he told ABC.

"There's a strong willingness for FIFA to look at the governance practices and that's a good step in the right direction."

Both were suspended over the allegations but FIFA's Ethics Committee cleared Blatter. The case against Trinidadian Warner and Bin Hammam, who have denied any wrongdoing, will be heard in July.