By SAM BORDEN
Friday, May 29, 2015
Sepp Blatter after Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan withdrew from the FIFA presidential race. Mr. Blatter has held the position since 1998. Credit Michael Buholzer/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
ZURICH — Sepp Blatter was re-elected as FIFA’s president on Friday, emerging from a week of scandal and renewed public criticism with a fifth term as the head of soccer’s world governing body.
On the first ballot of FIFA’s member federations here, Mr. Blatter got 133 votes, just short of the two-thirds majority required. His challenger, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, got 73 votes.
A second ballot would have required only a simple majority, making Prince Ali an extreme long shot, and he withdrew from the race.
“I want to thank, in particular, all of you who were brave enough to support me,” Prince Ali said in his concession. As he stepped away from the podium, he was greeted with a hug by Sunil Gulati, president of U.S. Soccer, who had beenone of his earliest supporters.
Mr. Blatter congratulated Prince Ali for what he said was “a very good result,” then told the delegates, “I like you,” adding, “For the next four years, I will be in command of this boat called FIFA. And we will bring it back on shore.”
The margin of victory was closer than expected. Although the voting was conducted in secret — each of the 209 member nations sent a delegate, one by one, to a booth to fill out a paper ballot — Mr. Blatter has long had the support of many smaller or developing countries, for whom he has delivered consistent funding. While Europe and some countries in the Americas supported Prince Ali, Mr. Blatter banked widespread support from the Asian and African confederations, which account for 100 votes. (FIFA officials said three of the ballots were spoiled.)
Given the stakes — the FIFA president oversees a global organization with billions in revenue — the vote itself was charming in its simplicity. After each country was called to the front of the arena and cast its ballot, the folded paper slips were dumped unceremoniously out of two boxes onto a conference table for the count in a scene more reminiscent of the election of a student council president than one of the most powerful executives in sports.
With his victory, Mr. Blatter, 79, continues a 40-year career with FIFA; he has served as president since 1998. His accomplishments are significant; under his watch, FIFA has overseen considerable growth in soccer’s popularity and has drastically increased its commitment to women’s soccer, youth soccer and aid for developing countries through sports.
Although he has never been directly implicated, Mr. Blatter has also been at the helm of an organization dogged by scandal. The latest arrests of several top soccer officials, which took place in a raid here Wednesday on behalf of United States authorities, in combination with a separate investigation by the Swiss police into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights, are just the latest in a long list of corruption allegations including money laundering, blatant conflicts of interest and outright bribery.
That reality, as well as a glaring lack of transparency, led some officials, including Mr. Gulati, to push for a reform candidate to challenge Mr. Blatter in this election. (Mr. Blatter had run unopposed in his last two elections.)
In a statement, Mr. Gulati said: “While we are disappointed in the result of the election, we will continue to push for meaningful change within FIFA. Our goal is for governance of FIFA that is responsible, accountable, transparent and focused solely on the best interests of the game. This is what FIFA needs and deserves, and what the people who love our game around the world demand. We congratulate President Blatter and it is our hope he will make reform his No. 1 priority to ensure the integrity of the sport across the world.”
On the first ballot of FIFA’s member federations in Zurich, Mr. Blatter got 133 votes, just short of the two-thirds majority required.CreditWalter Bieri/European Pressphoto AgencyInitially, four candidates were nominated against Mr. Blatter: Prince Ali, Michael van Praag of the Netherlands, the former Portuguese player Luís Figo and the retired French international player David Ginola.
Mr. Ginola’s campaign was largely a sham — it was backed by an online sports-betting company seeking publicity — and he withdrew early on, but it was only last week that Mr. van Praag and Mr. Figo stepped back and put their support behind Prince Ali, who campaigned on a platform committed to changing what he called a broken culture of FIFA.
“We have heard, in recent days, voices which described our FIFA as an avaricious body which feeds off the game it loves,” Prince Ali said in his speech to the delegates before the election. “We have heard questions about whether our family is morally bankrupt.”
Speaking in a measured tone, Prince Ali continued: “Friends and colleagues: If you give me your backing, we can win the right to a new beginning.”
It was a powerful speech from Prince Ali, but the delegates were not swayed, instead choosing again to elect Mr. Blatter, who joked, “I don’t need to introduce myself to you,” in his own remarks. Mr. Blatter also repeatedly highlighted his long record with FIFA and announced that he planned to create a new department, dedicated to serving the needs of professional players and clubs, within FIFA.
For the first time since the arrests of several of his colleagues, Mr. Blatter also took some measure of responsibility for the persistent problems which have plagued FIFA during his reign, saying, “I will shoulder it.” He added, “I just want to fix FIFA together with you.” That rhetoric from Mr. Blatter during his speech, however, was different from his comments earlier in the day, when he largely deflected the notion that he could monitor the behavior of his colleagues around the world, telling the Congress, “You can’t just ask people to behave ethically just like that.”
Mr. Blatter’s latest term — he has said, as he did after his last victory, that this will be a final mandate — begins beneath a substantial cloud. The two investigations, one by the United States Department of Justice and one by Swiss authorities, figure to provide even more “bad news,” as Mr. Blatter put it, in the coming weeks and months. There will be further arrests, depositions, extraditions and, perhaps, trials — all of which will extend the “current storm,” as Mr. Blatter said.
There are also continuing concerns about human-rights violations of construction workers building stadiums and other infrastructure ahead of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup as well as a territorial dispute between Israel andPalestine and an ever-worsening relationship between Mr. Blatter and UEFA, European soccer’s governing body. Michel Platini, UEFA’s president, called for Mr. Blatter to resign before the election and had said that UEFA would consider all options if Mr. Blatter won the election, including a World Cup boycott and a complete withdrawal from FIFA altogether.
“UEFA associations will meet in Berlin next week,” Mr. Platini said. “We will be open to all options.”
If UEFA does seek some sort of extreme move, it will likely be little more than another road bump for Mr. Blatter, who has endured through seemingly everything. While many in soccer’s larger community have continually clamored for a change, Mr. Blatter said that, in many ways, he feels as though his career is just beginning.
“We don’t need revolutions, but we always need evolutions,” he said, before adding: “Time is a flat circle. I am with you. Some will say a long time, some will say too long. But what is time?”
Mr. Blatter shrugged. “I say my time at FIFA has been too short.”
Source: New York Times