English FA head Greg Dyke to stand down in July

LONDON (Reuters) – English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has said he will not seek re-election when his current term ends in July.

The 68-year-old had said he would stand for a further year but said on Thursday that opposition to proposed governance reform to the FA council had caused him to reconsider.

“What I now see is that even if we get the reform through (which will be a difficult and divisive process although essential), I am probably not the best person to pick up the pieces following the inevitable discord,” he said in a statement.

Dyke, a prominent opponent of FIFA president Sepp Blatter during the recent corruption scandal within world soccer’s governing body, took over from David Bernstein in 2013.

(Reporting by Toby Davis; editing by Dominic Evans)