Sepp Blatter must have known about the 10million US dollar payment sent from a FIFA account to the disgraced former vice-president Jack Warner, the former UEFA president Lennart Johansson has claimed.
The money was sent in 2008 from FIFA to an account controlled by Warner following a request to FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke from the South African Football Association (SAFA). Warner's former deputy Chuck Blazer has testified in court that the cash was a bribe for their votes for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.
Blatter announced on Tuesday he will step down as president next year after a letter from SAFA to Valcke was made public. The FBI is reported to be investigating both him and Valcke as part of its probe into corruption involving FIFA officials which has seen 18 people already indicted.
Johansson, the 85-year-old who was beaten by Blatter in the 1998 presidential election, said his old adversary should leave FIFA now.
Speaking in Berlin, Johansson said: "I think that he must go immediately.
"I think the investigation has told him they will find out exactly what was done and by whom. The general secretary (Valcke) was sending away millions of dollars to America and then Blatter claims that he didn't know. He knows everything that's going on so don't believe that.
"The cash out (was) so much money and he who keeps everything under such tight control should know about it, this is nonsense."
He added: "I fought him for 20 years and then he bluffed me in '98 and everyone knows how. I was not very optimistic on that as he's very intelligent and he knows his market."
Blatter insisted on Saturday he was not the high-ranking FIFA official mentioned in the US indictment who authorized the 10million dollar payment to Jack Warner saying: "Definitely that's not me."
FIFA has yet to respond to Johansson's comments.
FIFA has refused to say whether Blatter or Valcke will attend the women's World Cup in Canada.
Blatter would normally attend the finals but is remaining in Zurich following Tuesday's announcement that he is to step down as FIFA president. Neither will he attend an International Olympic Committee meeting in Lausanne next week, FIFA has confirmed.
Asked if either was attending the women's World Cup, a FIFA spokesperson said via email: "Future travel plans will be confirmed in due course."
Meanwhile, Press Association Sport has obtained a copy of a cheque for 250,000 US dollars paid to Blazer which he told US justice officials was as part of 750,000 dollars he received as a bribe to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.
The US indictment states of the cheque: "The third payment, in the amount of USD 250,000, was made by check drawn on an account held in the name of CFU at Republic Bank in Trinidad and Tobago. The check was delivered to Co-Conspirator #1 (Blazer) by another individual who traveled by airplane from Trinidad and Tobago to JFK International Airport in Queens, New York, and then to CONCACAF's headquarters in New York, New York, where he delivered the check to Co-Conspirator #1 (Blazer)."
Germany federation president Wolfgang Niersbach also believes Blatter should step down immediately.
"For me it's incredible the way it happened. (Sepp Blatter) invites the whole world to a Congress, he gets re-elected and then four days later he resigns, for whatever reason, but it's not an immediate resignation," Niersbach told German TV station ZDF.
"Everything needs to go much faster."
