FIFA president Sepp Blatter was relieved of his International Olympic Committee ex officio membership yesterday, seven months before he will be replaced as the head of soccer’s governing body, IOC president Thomas Bach said.

Blatter would ordinarily have been re-elected for another eight-year term as a procedural matter at the ongoing IOC Session in Malaysia, along with more than a dozen other members, but would be required to stand down when he left FIFA at the end of February.

The 79-year-old was re-elected for a fifth term as FIFA president on May 29 but an-nounced he would lay down his mandate just four days later in the wake of the worst crisis in the soccer authority’s history.

FIFA was thrown into turmoil two days ahead of its presidential election when more than a dozen officials and sports marketing executives were indicted by the US on bribery and money laundering.

The Swiss has been an ex officio IOC member since 1999.

“Mr Blatter wrote me a letter on July 23 informing me that it would be inappropriate to seek another eight-year term as he was retiring from his position at FIFA in seven months when a new president will be selected on February 26,” Bach said.