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Crisis-Hit FIFA Prepares to Vote on Whether to Keep Sepp Blatter as Chief
Sepp Blatter Close to Re-election as FIFA Vote Heads to Second Ballot
(about 2 hours later)
ZURICH — Soccer’s world governing body was to hold a presidential election on Friday, with members expected to hand a fifth term to Sepp Blatter, the president who has been at the helm during one of the worst crises in the organization’s long history.
ZURICH — Sepp Blatter fell just short of re-election as FIFA’s president on the first ballot on Friday.
FIFA was buffeted by scandal this week after revelations of a sweeping inquiry in the United States into corruption that has ensnared several of Mr. Blatter’s current and former lieutenants. But despite anger in the world of soccer, where many hold Mr. Blatter, 79, responsible for the problems engulfing the organization, he is expected to defeat his challenger, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.
Mr. Blatter got 133 votes, short of the two-thirds majority required. His challenger, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, got 73 votes in a ballot of FIFA’s member federations here.
Opening the organization’s annual meeting of its congress in Zurich, Mr. Blatter, a tenacious leader adept at weathering turmoil, appeared stoic and resolved.
A second ballot was to be taken, also on Friday, with only a simple majority required. Mr. Blatter was heavily favored to win.
“I would like that discipline, respect and fair play reign supreme,” he said. “Let us show to the world that we are able to run our institution.”
The announcement came after a prolonged voting period in which a member of each delegation was called to the front of the arena in alphabetical order by delegation to cast a ballot in one of two boxy white voting booths. The process took more than an hour.
Mr. Blatter added, “I think the important point today is to move ahead and the important point is transparency.”
Mr. Blatter, one of the most powerful people in sports, has run FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, as an autocracy since winning the presidency in 1998. He was expected to defeat Prince Ali despite the allegations of criminal behavior that have engulfed his organization this week. The vote took place only miles from the luxury hotel where several top FIFA officials were arrested Wednesday on corruption charges brought by the United States.
The FIFA president also questioned the timing of the raids conducted by Swiss law enforcement officials, at the request of the United States, at the five-star hotel in Zurich where FIFA executives are staying.
For years, FIFA’s membership has largely operated in lock step under Mr. Blatter as he weathered numerous controversies — corruption, bribery, match-fixing and others — and rarely showed any sign of vulnerability. In the previous two presidential races, he ran unopposed. The federal charges this week against some of his top officials were considered an international embarrassment, but hardly a threat to his power.
“It is not good for all this to occur two days before the election,” he said. “I’m not going to use the word coincidence but I do have a small question mark.”
The FIFA president is elected by a one-country, one-vote poll of its 209 member federations, making the many smaller countries who support Mr. Blatter an effective counterweight to his unpopularity elsewhere, most notably in Europe.
FIFA avoided one controversy on Friday, when the head of Palestine’s soccer federation, Jibril Rajoub, withdrew a proposal to suspend Israel from world soccer. Given the floor to address the delegates, Mr. Rajoub made an impassioned speech accusing Israel of racism and imposing unfair restrictions on player movement in the region, but then said he was withdrawing the proposal at the urging of top FIFA officials.
Mr. Blatter, who was not directly implicated in the indictment or in a separate investigation announced by Swiss authorities into the 2010 voting that awarded the next two World Cups, said in a speech before the vote Friday: “I am being held accountable for the current storm. O.K., so be it. I will shoulder it.”
On Thursday, in his first public comments since the arrests, Mr. Blatter sought to deflect responsibility for FIFA’s problems and simultaneously suggested he was willing and able to solve them. “We, or I, cannot monitor everyone all of the time,” Mr. Blatter said. “If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it.”
He acknowledged in a speech Thursday that these are “unprecedented and difficult times” for FIFA. But he also tried to absolve himself of blame for FIFA’s latest scandal.
Mr. Blatter’s chances of re-election could be helped by the electoral system FIFA uses, in which each of the 209 soccer federations around the world has an equal vote.
“We, or I, cannot monitor everyone all of the time,” he said. “If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it. But it must also fall to me to be responsible for the reputation of our entire organization, and to find a way to fix things.”
Although Europe’s top soccer official has asked Mr. Blatter to step aside, he has the support of many countries in the developing world, where he has worked to expand soccer’s reach and helped foster huge investments in infrastructure. In Russia and Brazil, senior officials suggested the United States’ investigators had pursued the case to expand American influence over soccer.
Prince Ali, a brother of King Abdullah II, ran on a platform of transparency. He promised Friday “to throw open the door of FIFA house.”
Illustrating the extent of the polarization, the chairman of England’s Football Association, Greg Dyke, told Sky Sports News this week that UEFA, which oversees the sport in Europe, should consider a coordinated boycott of the World Cup in Russia in 2018 if Mr. Blatter were re-elected. He said the level of corruption at FIFA under Mr. Blatter’s stewardship was “just frightening.”
In an interview in March, he said that if he somehow unseated Mr. Blatter, he had no intention of remaining in power as long.
Mr. Blatter was not directly implicated in the indictment from the United States Justice Department or a separate investigation announced by the Swiss authorities into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. While confidence in his leadership has been shaken, there does not seem to have been a fundamental shift against him.
“One term,” he said. “One term. I want to get in there, make the changes that need to be made and then get out of the way.”
Nevertheless, the scandal appeared to have swung some votes in favor of his only challenger, Prince Ali, who has support in both Europe and the United States. Michel Platini, the president of UEFA, enthusiastically backed Prince Ali, noting that his wealth would seem to make him more resistant to corruption.
Mr. Blatter promised that a new term would be his last. He made the same promise before his last election.
Mr. Platini predicted on Thursday that Prince Ali would receive “45 or 46” of the 53 European votes. Sunil Gulati, the head of the United States Soccer Federation and a member of FIFA’s governing executive committee, said on Thursday that the Americans supported Prince Ali.
Separately, FIFA avoided a controversy Friday when the head of Palestine’s soccer federation, Jibril Rajoub, withdrew a proposal to suspend Israel from world soccer. Given the floor to address the delegates, Mr. Rajoub made an impassioned speech accusing Israel of racism and imposing unfair restrictions on player movement in the region, but then said he was withdrawing the proposal at the urging of top FIFA officials.
However, the African, South American and Asian confederations are largely seen as supporting Mr. Blatter. To secure victory, he needs two-thirds of the votes on the first ballot and a simple majority on any ensuing ballots.
Mr. Blatter may be taking some comfort from his outspoken supporters, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who on Thursday criticized the United States for its part in the raids. He accused the Department of Justice of intervening outside its jurisdiction by pursuing the case against senior soccer officials, who, he noted, are not American citizens. Mr. Putin also said that he supported Mr. Blatter’s approach to running global soccer and added that the American investigation appeared to be a blatant attempt to prevent Mr. Blatter’s re-election.
Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, echoed on Friday the denials of other government officials following accusations by the American authorities that his country had paid $10 million in bribes to ensure it would host the 2010 World Cup.
“I am not aware of anybody who solicited a bribe from the government for the purpose of our country being awarded the right to host the World Cup,” Mr. Mbeki said in a statement. “No public money was ever used to pay a bribe.”
Mr. Mbeki played a leading role in campaigning for the country to host the games.
