Soccer fans, players skeptical of FIFA chief's claim of innocence?

In the wake of FIFA executives’ arrests on Wednesday, European soccer teams are calling for soccer’s governing body to clean house, starting at the top.

The annual FIFA congress is taking place this week in Zurich, Switzerland, where FIFA President Sepp Blatter faces reelection. If he wins a fifth term, the European Football Associations’ president, Michel Platini, said its teams might pull out of FIFA and the World Cup.

Platini told Blatter directly in a meeting Thursday morning to stand down before the ballot, but the FIFA chief refused. Members of his administration have been indicted by the U.S. government for taking bribes to secure votes for World Cup locations. Despite his pleas of innocence, international soccer players and fans are suspicious of Blatter’s actions.

“This [corruption] did not come as a surprise. There have been rumors circulating the bids for years,” said Joe Straw, a player from Yoaunde, Cameroon.

Swiss law enforcement officials stormed the annual FIFA meeting on Wednesday to arrest seven members of Blatter’s cabinet and five soccer marketing executives. Law enforcement officers brought the officials to court and charged them with racketeering, bribery, money laundering, and fraud.

Though rumors and allegations have swirled around Blatter during his 17-year reign as FIFA president, no charges came against him in the investigation.

Ernest Forbin, former professional soccer player for the Uruguay and Cameroon national teams agrees with the Europeans: Blatter needs to resign.

“Having been the head of the organization for a few decades, I’m sure [Blatter] has been taking money,” Forbin said. “A lot of these kinds of briberies happen frequently.”

Blatter is running against Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan. President of Jordanian football since 1999, Prince Ali is currently serving as one of FIFA’s seven vice presidents.

Following the start of the latest scandal involving FIFA, Prince Ali promised he will put an end to the “crisis” currently surrounding football's world governing body.

“He’s going to have a hard time proving that he’s not involved in it. How can the head of an organization not know what’s happening below him?” Straw said.

Many observers believe Blatter is likely to win, even as the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice search the Confederation of North, Central American, and Caribbean Association Football headquarters, a FIFA branch in Miami.

“They did this over and over, year after year, tournament after tournament,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who supervised the investigation from its earliest stages as the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.