By AARON CRANFORD
Sepp Blatter will lead FIFA as president for a fifth successive term after opponent Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein withdrew from consideration Friday at the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich.
After the first round ballot, Blatter held a 133-73 vote lead over Prince Hussein from Jordan, but a two-thirds majority was needed in order to be named FIFA president, and Blatter did not have the 140 votes necessary to claim victory.
However, with the sizable gap in votes, Prince Hussein decided enough was enough and withdrew from consideration before the second round of voting began.
Blatter is now set to run the organizational body of soccer for a fifth term — this one running from now until 2019.
FIFA and president Blatter have come under fire for wrongdoings in the past week. And while no direct case can be made against the president, charges against FIFA executives saw 10 arrested early Wednesday morning for corruption charges.
“We will continue to work with the relevant authorities,” Blatter said about the investigations on Wednesday, “and we will work vigorously within FIFA in order to root out any misconduct, to regain your trust and ensure that football worldwide is free from wrongdoing.”
U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati backed Prince Hussein before today’s FIFA Congress, and after the Prince announced his withdrawal, the president of U.S. Soccer was the first individual to embrace Blatter’s opponent.
“While we are disappointed in the result of the election, we will continue to push for meaningful change within FIFA,” Gulati said of Blatter’s re-election. “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 number one priority to ensure the integrity of the sport across the world.”
What do you think about the result? Think Blatter will do abetter job as president in this term?
Share your thoughts below.
FIFA has Blatter cancer.
The Fidel Castro of world football wins again.
No
Destroy FIFA.
It would have earned my respect had Gulati given a stronger response to his reelection. Instead, my opinion of soccer continues to dwindle. From to awarding of the world cups to when JK turned the U.S. fanbase against each other, and so many others things have gone downhill in MLS and abroad.
A golden opportunity missed, but not unexpected.
HA!
Another US-backed coup attempt that backfires.
FIFA is 2015’s Vietnam
Yeah! Corruption and bribery wins! Liars, Cheaters and Scoundrels everywhere rejoice!
And a Ha Ha to You Too …
Wow! Don’t cut anyone with your edge.
This is a stupid comment
In other news USSF is banned from any soccer related activities. All owners of FIFA are required to drop off their copies at your closest GameStop. Soccer players should refrain from kicking any licensed official FIFA soccer balls. Obviously MLS will lose its FIFA registration.
haha I don’t know about all of that but we certainly are destined for more Groups of Deaths and crazy travel schedules during the World Cup. Look forward to watching our guys play close to the arctic circle in ’18.
World Cup? We’ll be lucky to get to the Hex
Haiti eliminates us with 3 penalties
Funny enough, I noticed shortly after the U-20s played their last game, the highlights were quickly taken down from Youtube and stated that “the content was not available in this country”.
No Soccer for you!
Modern day mafia. Fascinating and sad. Money makes the world go round…
maFIFA***
If only the FIFA version of the Untouchables appeared… well, that might be the DOJ and FBI in a few months time.
Perhaps no better expression of Blatter’s incompetence then the following mixed metaphor (from his acceptance speech):
“For the next four years, I will be in command of this boat called FIFA. And we will bring it back on shore.”
Sepp, your shipped already crashed and foundered.
Democratic countries should seriously consider setting up an alternative to FIFA. If UEFA led the way, then FIFA would be nothing overnight.
The problem is that not all UEFA countries are siding with Michell Platini on the matter. But as I posted above, if a host of countries from around the globe boycotted the next world cup, or even a group of countries from the 2016 Euro, it would really be a tipping point and things would just spiral downward from there.
I agree…but really, who cares? If England and Germany are ready to jump, I say, anchor ourselves to ’em, and let’s us three just head out the door. UEFA can’t survive as an entity without those two…whereas Germany, England, and the USA can survive just fine as allied soccer nations without FIFA…or UEFA. Might actually benefit the USA because in order to come up with some replacement for UEFA Champions League they might have to fold in teams from the USA and Mexico. I’d be just fine with that, and I’d bet you MLS and Liga MX would be too.
We have the money. Between American, German, and UK-based corporate sponsorships, that’s close to half of soccer’s dollars, right there. Add in everybody in the financial orbits of those three – Canada, Israel, Australia, Austria, Mexico, all the UK nations like Scotland, Wales, Ireland, etc – and then figure Japan and South Korea would be right out the door with us…well, that’s the ball game. After that it’s all over but the shouting.
Yeah, I completely agree. And of course, like you mentioned before, Canada, New Zealand, Australia & probably South Africa will follow suite.
I may not always run for President of FIFA, but when I do, I hand out big bags of cash.
Stay greedy, my friends.
Why are people genuinely acting surprised by this?
Three days ago, not many people even knew who the Prince was. The fact that he got as many late votes as he did signals that most of the Western World has woken up to the chicanery of FIFA.
It shows momentum in the right direction, hopefully, it will continue and Blatter isn’t around long enough to still be in that chair come 2019.
It’s time the USSF leave FIFA. Nothing will change.
That would get us nowhere honestly
Now if The USSF, the English federation and a host of other countries could pull together and consolidate a coalition from South America and Europe, then we could really do something about this.
It’s really only a matter of time, either through legal course or the federations boycotting, until it all falls down
And being in FIFA and trying enact change within FIFA has gotten us where?
You act as if the U.S. has been at the forefront of FIFA reform for decades already.
Change takes time….particularly when the problems are so ingrained and entrenched.
Blatter said: “We will put the ship back on course in clear transparent waters,”
“There was so much doubt leading up to this, there was a lot of talk, but all of that is in the past,” Blatter told Reuters. “Now we have created instruments to fight against all that is bad in Fifa with more transparency.”
His acceptance speech.
After he won his 4 term in June 2011.
Nothing has CHANGED! Not even the message. This guy has been saying the same thing for over 16 years. Even the balloting was secret like it has alway been. Clear and transparent? Ha!
Ok, sure. I and many others share your frustration. But the USSF isn’t big enough to do anything on its own or with only the English federation at it’s side.
They need solidarity with a few key other countries from other regions to do something bold
Yup. Honestly we just need us, England, Germany. After that you could host a legitimate, non-FIFA “World Cup” with everybody who would follow those three alone.
You’d have a lot more than those three, obviously. I don’t see most of UEFA sticking with FIFA if their two biggest cash dogs bolt; they’ll follow the money…and the money is in England and Germany. Obviously Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and all the UK nations – Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland – would be right in behind. After that I strongly suspect you’d see Japan and South Korea – who also follow the money – jumping to the new Federation…and then it starts snowballing. Hard to predict what most of CONMEBOL or CONCACAF would do – dither and straddle the fence, most likely – but if most of Europe is behind it, I don’t see them sticking with Blatter.
The knife in the heart would be if Switzerland jumped to the new federation…which I suspect they might, since they’re almost enitrely tied to Western Europe. Be kind of hard for Blatter to maintain any credibility whatsoever when his own country is part of another Federation. FIFA might have to set up in Moscow.
Exactly.
As far as CONMEBOL & CONCACAF, I’d point to the regions we have strong relations with. If we can’t count on their support in such a scenario, our Intelligence departments probably have something to threaten them with, forcing a back deal. Essentially blackmail I guess.
Mexico, Costa RIca, Columbia, Brazil & Chile are all countries that could potentially side with us if an uprising occured. We have strong ties economically with these countries
I feel like a broken record saying this for what feels like years now, but just wait for Copa 2016. That’s the key. When the world sees that a highly successful, hugely entertaining, and very profitable inter-confederation tournament can be hosted without FIFA, people will finally begin to ask– why do we need them at all?
Gulati knows this, and he is going to get it done. As far as I’m concerned, the ship remains on course.
BS.. when the US leads on righteous issues, the world follows. Everyone is waiting for someone, anyone to fire the first shot and leave FIFA – it’s not if, it’s when. The USSF should leave FIFA – it would be epic, and righteous.
You are confusing world politics, influence and power with soccer politics, influence and power.
The US is a big boy in the former, but not in the latter.
True, but politics will/can control soccer.
Especially consider the power our counterintelligence holds.
*counterintelligence agencies hold
Eh, it isn’t that simple. Sure, we don’t have a glorious history in World Cups. It’s getting more respectable every time we qualify, but we’re not Germany, Brazil or Italy. So by performance, we shouldn’t be influential. Yet, we have the largest middle class of potential jersey buyers, which is precisely why European teams (not players, not coaches, but teams – as in the people who profit from kit sales) rarely turn down invitations to off-season friendlies here. We have more influence than you might think, especially with the nations that think they have a shot at getting their piece of our middle class soccer consumption.
Bringing it back to the original point though, USA would need UEFA. The majority of soccer money (besides the World Cup) comes from UEFA. UEFA and their soccer powers have more influence than the U.S. does.
USA trying to go at it alone would be disastrous for us.
He will only go out like Warden Norton in ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’
I agree. Hopefully the USSF and England stick together and gain some traction. Any other World Cup team that would decide to play in a non-FIFA tourney would just be gravy, initially. There are plenty of solid UEFA teams and stars who don’t make the World Cup (Sweden, Ireland, Czech) that could bring the competition level up, and CONCACAF teams could really showcase their ability like they did in the last cup. It took some time, but the NCAA tourney overtook the NIT, so once better teams decide to play in the non-FIFA tourney it will reach a tipping point.