Blatter this morning said these individuals were not representative of the entire organisation who had lost sight of the fact that football "is a team sport".

Football leaders and politicians from across Europe have called for Mr Blatter to either resign or be voted out after Swiss police carried out a dawn raid on Wednesday and arrested seven officials.

In an opening speech at the Fifa Congress in Zurich today, Mr Blatter said: “The events of this week unleashed a storm.

“It was even questioned whether this Congress would go ahead but I am appealing for unity and team spirit to tackle the problems that have been created and to solve them.

“It will not be done in a single day, it will take some time. The important point today is to move ahead – and the important point is transparency. We have a problem to solve.”

It has since emerged that bank accounts at Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank were allegedly used to transfer cash as part of the conspiracy.

The three British-based international banks were named on the indictment released by the US Department of Justice, which charged a total of 18 people over alleged bribes totalling more than $150m for television rights, sponsorship deals and World Cup votes.

The majority of the payments were allegedly transferred using American wire and banking facilities, but the charges state that $500,000 allegedly reached the HSBC account of a luxury yacht manufacturer in London.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in London is reported to be monitoring the situation and reviewing British firms with links to FIFA.