Sepp Blatter to host news conference in Zurich

FIFA president Sepp Blatter Reuters

FIFA president Sepp Blatter will hold a news conference at world soccer's global headquarters on Monday following a meeting of the body's executive committee.

FIFA announced the Zurich news conference, scheduled for 1600 GMT, on its website.

It will be Blatter's first formal public forum since he was on Sunday cleared of any wrongdoing by FIFA's ethics committee.

That committee temporarily suspended Asian soccer chief Mohamed Bin Hammam and CONCACAF president Jack Warner following cash-for-votes allegations.

The pair were accused of arranging to pay delegates of the Caribbean Football Union $40,000 in cash to vote for Bin Hammam in a presidential election against Blatter scheduled for later this week.

Both men deny any wrongdoing.

Bin Hammam pulled out of the election race hours before his suspension.

Both Qatari Bin Hammam and Warner, a government minister in his native Trinidad & Tobago, are now temporarily suspended from any soccer-related activity.

Both will be absent from the Congress where Blatter can expect to be re-elected to the post he has held since 1998.