Sepp Blatter has been re-elected for a fifth term as FIFA president despite the crisis that has struck the world governing body this week.
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Blatter saw off the challenge from Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan after a week which saw seven FIFA officials arrested and 18 people connected to football indicted on corruption charges by the US justice department.
Blatter won the first round by 133 votes to 73 and, after Prince Ali decided to withdraw ahead of the second round, the 79-year-old was installed as FIFA president for another four years.
The outcome of the first-round vote meant Prince Ali succeeded in preventing Blatter from winning a two-thirds majority, but the 39-year-old pulled out of the contest rather than force a second round of voting. His supporters had been keen to get past the 70-vote mark as that would be seen to have delivered a bloody nose to Blatter.
FIFA decision to re-elect Blatter is beyond belief. It tells you that the whole organisation needs re-building from scratch.
— Danny Cohen (@DannyCohen) May 29, 2015
The Swiss said: “I thank you, you have accepted me for the next four years. I will be in command of this boat of FIFA. We will bring it back off shore.
“I am a faithful man, God, Allah, whoever, they will help us to bring back this FIFA. At the end of my term, I will give FIFA to my successor. It will be robust.
“I’m not perfect. Nobody is perfect. But we will do a good job together. Let’s go FIFA! Let’s go FIFA!”
The victory is also set to see further protests from UEFA – the first action has come from David Gill, the Football Association vice-chairman who will reject the post of British vice-president as he does not want to serve under Blatter.
Prince Ali said in defeat: “I just wanted to thank all of you. It’s been a wonderful journey. I want to especially thank all of you who were brave enough to vote for me.”
Earlier, Blatter had told the 209 associations who gathered for the FIFA Congress in Zurich that the crisis would not have happened if countries other than Russia and Qatar had won the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
In what appeared a reference to the United States and England losing out, Blatter called for unity from FIFA’s 209 associations ahead of the presidential election. Most of the media investigations into FIFA have come from Britain, while it is the US justice authorities behind this week’s arrests and indictments.
Blatter said: “If two other countries had emerged from the envelope I think we may not have these problems. But we can’t go back in time, we’re not prophets, we can’t say what would have happened.’’
Now that Fifa Election is over,I say well done to Prince Ali,but let’s open a new chapter for a better world of Football behind Mr Blatter.
— Khalid Al Busaidi (@SayyidKhalid) May 29, 2015
Blatter admitted the events of this week “unleashed a storm’’ ahead of the election but had appealed to delegates for unity, and said: “I am being held accountable for the current storm, okay so be it – I will shoulder that responsibility. I want to fix FIFA together with you.”
Prince Ali addressed the crisis that has struck FIFA and in an impressive speech called for a “new dawn” for the governing body. He said: “The eyes of the world are upon us and not for the first time and this time everything is at stake – for the game, for the world.
“The world that is watching is not a stakeholder separate from the game, FIFA does not exist in a bubble. There cannot be a more defining moment in time.
“Now is the time to show the outside world that we are hungry for their respect. For the soul of our game and for a new dawn for FIFA.”
Culture Secretary John Whittingdale calls the #Fifa result ‘incredibly disappointing’ http://t.co/F2uNIfwtRK pic.twitter.com/NdtoXqpG7X
— ITV News (@itvnews) May 29, 2015
Swiss police had earlier cleared the congress hall following a bomb threat. There was a another security incident when two pro-Palestinian protesters were ejected, while a demonstration calling for Israel to be ejected from FIFA continued outside.
The Palestinian FA dropped a proposal to have the Israeli FA suspended from FIFA but won the right for a committee to be established to ensure free movement of players and goods, and for FIFA to pass it to the United Nations to decide whether five Israeli settler clubs should be permitted to continue in “occupied territories”.
This was followed by a symbolic handshake between the presidents of the Israeli and Palestinian FAs.