Fresh allegations of corruption stemming from payments made to former FIFA president Joao Havelange have prompted successor Sepp Blatter to ask for his removal as honorary president.

The pressure on Blatter regarding Havelange, who served as FIFA president from 1974 to 1998, has been increasing since FIFA last week released a Swiss investigative report that detailed millions of dollars in kickbacks paid to Havelange and former Brazilian soccer federation supremo Ricardo Teixeira from marketing agency ISL.

"He has to go. He can't remain honorary president after these incidents,'' Blatter told Swiss weekly SonntagsBlick. Blatter served as a FIFA senior official prior to replacing Havelange in 1998 and maintains such payments were legal under Swiss law when they were made in the 1990s.

''I only learned of it (the payments), after the collapse of the ISL agency in 2001,'' Blatter said. ''It was FIFA which made a criminal complaint at the time and thereby got the ball rolling in the ISL case.''