associated press
Zurich, May 29: Sepp Blatter was re-elected as FIFA president for a fifth term here Friday, chosen to lead world soccer despite separate US and Swiss criminal investigations into corruption.
The 209 FIFA member federations gave the 79-year-old Blatter another four-year term after Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan conceded defeat after losing 133-73 in the first round.
Prince Ali’s promise of a clean break from FIFA’s tarnished recent history was rejected despite the worst scandal in the organisation’s 111-year history. The election went ahead after US and Swiss federal investigations struck at the heart of Blatter’s ‘football family’ this week.
Still, soccer leaders worldwide stayed loyal to their embattled president of 17 years, even though Prince Ali pushed the election to a second round by getting a surprising 73 votes. However, before the second round started, Prince Ali stood before the Congress and conceded defeat.
Earlier in the day while addressing the Congress, Blatter had stated that all this scandals woudn’t have surfaced if Russia and Qatar were not gives the rights to host the 2018 and the 2022 World Cup. He also questioned the timing of arrests of some of his key associates.
“It’s not good for all of this to emerge two days before FIFA presidential elections. I’m not going to use the word coincidence but there is a small question mark,” Blatter, who is standing for re-election later Friday, said in his address to the FIFA Congress.
England, Spain Portugal and Netherlands, Belgium were also bidding for 2018, while the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia were Qatar’s rivals for 2022.
FIFA launched an investigation into allegations of corruption in the process but found no grounds for re-running the vote.
Blatter’s opening address was briefly interrupted by a female protester waving a Palestinian flag and shouting at him before being removed. “Security, please,” said Blatter when the protester burst in.
“Today, I am appealing to unity and team spirit so we can move forward together,” Blatter said. “It may not always be easy but he we are here together to tackle the problems that have been created. We are we are here to solve them.”
He continued: “We are at a turning point. We cannot constantly supervise everybody that is involved in football, But we can wipe out corruption.”
