Blatter gives up IOC membership as FIFA exit nears

FIFA President Sepp Blatter reacts during a news conference at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland July 20, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - FIFA President Sepp Blatter was relieved of his International Olympic Committee ex officio membership on Monday, seven months before he will be replaced as the head of football's governing body, IOC President Thomas Bach said on Monday.

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.