ST PETERSBURG, Russia AP:

Jerome Valcke expects to leave his job as FIFA secretary general after Sepp Blatter's successor is elected.

Valcke, however, said yesterday it is not because he is responsible for any wrongdoing in the crisis that has shaken the governing body.

The Frenchman has served for eight years as the top administrator at FIFA, which is at the centre of criminal investigations by American and Swiss authorities.

The weight of the corruption probes and sponsors' concerns led to Blatter announcing on June 2 that he will leave FIFA, a move that came four days after he was re-elected to serve a fifth, four-year term. A successor to Blatter, who has headed the governing body since 1998, is to be elected on February 26.

"Whoever becomes the FIFA president should have a new secretary general because it's the most important relationship for the organisation," Valcke said.

"About my future, I would say that at least I can have some privacy in regards of whatever questions you are asking, and what I want do with my life is just a question about me and myself."

The questions in recent weeks have centred on Valcke's direct links to payments totalling $10 million from FIFA accounts, which the US Department of Justice said were bribes to FIFA executive committee members to vote for South Africa as the 2010 World Cup host.

Valcke began his job several months before the money transfers in early 2008 to accounts controlled by former FIFA vice- president Jack Warner.

FIFA and Valcke said the cash was believed to be for soccer projects for the African diaspora in the Caribbean and was approved by Julio Grondona of Argentina, the chairman of FIFA's finance committee, who died last year.