FIFA'S ethics committee has cleared its president Sepp Blatter in a bribery investigation and left the way clear for him to be re-elected as the head of world football unopposed for a fourth four-year term.

Executive members Jack Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam, who was due to stand against Mr Blatter until he withdrew from the presidential race in the early hours of yesterday morning, were provisionally suspended yesterday pending further investigation.

Football’s governing body will now open a full probe into allegations that financial incentives were offered to members of the Caribbean Football Union.

CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester have also been suspended.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke confirmed the presidential election would go ahead on Wednesday with Mr Blatter, 75, standing unopposed.

“The committee concluded that the implicated officials must be temporarily excluded from active participation in football activities,” ethics committee deputy chairman Petrus Damaseb said.

Mr Blatter said in a statement: “I do not wish to comment in detail, but simply to say that I regret what has happened in the last few days and weeks. Fifa’s image has suffered a great deal as a result.”

UK Sports Minister Hugh Robertson called on Fifa to be more “transparent and accountable”, but ruled out the idea of the English Football Association quitting world football’s governing body.

In 2002, Mr Blatter, who is Swiss, fought and beat claims made against him in the lead up to Fifa presidential elections in Seoul when he was elected for a second four-year term.

Fifa’s then general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen had compiled a 30-page dossier claiming Mr Blatter was guilty of corruption and mismanagement. However, Mr Blatter was cleared of any criminal misconduct by Zurich prosecutors. In 2003, Farah Addo, president of the Somali Football Association who claimed he was offered $100,000 (£61,000) to vote for Blatter, was suspended from soccer’s world governing body for two years. Fifa’s disciplinary commission said at the time he had failed to prove his allegations.

The latest allegations concern a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union between May 10 and 11 in Port of Spain, attended by Mr Warner and Mr Bin Hammam and Caribbean soccer officials.

Mr Bin Hammam, from Qatar, and Mr Warner are accused of handing over bundles of cash, each of £24,000, to officials in Trinidad earlier this month.

“Some individuals alleged money was paid as an inducement to support Mr Bin Hammam’s candidacy, facilitated by Jack Warner,” said Mr Damaseb.

Mr Blatter was interrogated at Mr Bin Hammam’s request over whether he knew about payments, Fifa said, but Mr Damaseb said no wrongdoing had been found.

“The committee was satisfied that even assuming he had been told, there was no duty on his part to report because there was no breach at that stage.”

Mr Damaseb said the timing of the hearing had nothing to do with the election. “The timing of our involvement at the moment, the trigger for our involvement, are the statutes of Fifa,” he said.