FIFA remains Blatter’s playground

Zurich, May 29

Sepp Blatter was re-elected president of FIFA for a fifth term on Friday after his only challenger conceded defeat in an election overshadowed by allegations of rampant corruption in world football. Blatter's victory came despite demands that he quit in the face of a major bribery scandal being investigated by US, Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that plunged football's governing body into the worst crisis in its 111-year history.

Neither Blatter nor Jordanian opponent Prince Ali bin Al Hussein got the necessary two thirds of the ballot in the first round, with Blatter securing 133 votes against 73 for Prince Ali. However, Prince Ali swiftly conceded. “I congratulate you if you voted for Prince Ali, he was a good candidate, but I am the president now, the president of everybody,” the 79-year-old Blatter said in his victory speech.

FIFA, ruled over by Blatter since 1998, was rocked this week by the arrest of seven senior officials in a pre-dawn police raid at a luxury Swiss hotel as part of an investigation into widespread financial wrongdoing stretching back for years. Blatter has batted away the furore, relying on his network of friends to hold onto power at FIFA, which he joined in 1975.

“At the end of my term I will give back a strong FIFA to my successor. You ask me about age. Age is not a problem. You have people who are 50, they look old,” he said to huge laughs. Prince Ali, in his pitch for votes, had pledged an open, more democratic FIFA, saying: “We have heard in recent days, voices which described our FIFA as an avaricious body which feeds on the game that the world loves,” he said.

While Asian, African and Latin American states had been expected to rally around Blatter, Europe had been keen for him to step aside. European football chiefs said after the vote that FIFA had to embrace reform. “Change in my opinion is crucial if this organisation is to regain its credibility,” said Michel Platini, who heads Europe's football confederation UEFA.

Corruption

US authorities have accused top FIFA figures and sports executives of corruption, while Switzerland is investigating the award of the next World Cup finals to Russia and Qatar. The scandal widened on Friday when Britain's Serious Fraud Office said it was examining possible corruption at FIFA. A judge in Argentina has ordered the arrest of three businessmen accused of using bribery to obtain football media rights, and the Brazilian Senate moved to open a formal inquiry into football bribery allegations.

Sponsors concerned

FIFA takes in billions of dollars in revenue from television marketing rights and sponsorships, making it one of the wealthiest and most powerful sports bodies in the world. It has been dogged by corruption scandals for decades, mostly investigating itself and avoiding scrutiny by criminal courts. One of its top sponsors, Coca-Cola, said after Blatter's re-election that, “FIFA must now seize the opportunity to begin winning back the trust it has lost.”

WC boycott threat

Many of Blatter's opponents have spoken of steps they can take against him. English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke, who has suggested that England might back a possible boycott of the 2018 World Cup, said FIFA's crisis was not over.

“This is the beginning, not the end. I think there is a lot more of this to play out,” he told Sky News shortly after Blatter had seen off Ali's challenge — the first time he has faced an opponent at a FIFA election since 2002. Other European football officials have also alluded to the prospect of a boycott, but that is still seen as unlikely given the tournament's importance to the global game. — Reuters