Blatter set for re-election after FIFA storm
FIFA president Sepp Blatter was poised to be re-elected as head of world football Wednesday after riding out the worst crisis of his career following weeks of explosive corruption allegations.
Despite late calls from English and Scottish football officials, backed by Britain's Prince William, for a postponement to the ballot, Blatter is expected to earn another four-year term as delegates gather in Zurich for the 61st FIFA congress.
Blatter, 75, has fought a vicious election battle against former ally Mohamed bin Hammam, the Qatari head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) who withdrew from the race on Sunday amid a vote-buying scandal.
Bin Hammam and influential FIFA vice-president Jack Warner were later suspended by the organisation's ethics committee pending an investigation into claims they offered cash bribes in a bid to topple Blatter.
The revelations followed testimony in the British parliament last month that senior FIFA officials had sought cash and favours during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Warner and bin Hammam had both vowed to fight their suspensions, with Warner, the head of the Caribbean, North and Central American federation (CONCACAF) threatening to unleash a "tsunami" of damning evidence against Blatter.
But the prospect of full-scale civil war within FIFA receded Tuesday as Warner, who 24 hours earlier had declared "Blatter must be stopped", performed a volte-face and urged CONCACAF officials to support the Swiss veteran.
Similarly, bin Hammam ordered Asian delegates not to stage a boycott of the congress as they had done during a meeting in Los Angeles in 1999, making it likely that Blatter will be returned to power by acclamation rather than a formal ballot of FIFA's membership.
Acting Asian football boss Zhang Jilong vowed to bring corrupt officials to book and said claims against bin Hammam "harm the sport's beauty", Chinese media said Wednesday.
Zhang, who took charge after bin Hammam was suspended over alleged bribery, pledged to make the AFC more transparent and to ease the fall-out from the graft scandals engulfing the sport.
Blatter, who had denied FIFA was in crisis during a stormy press conference on Monday, told delegates at the congress's opening ceremony on Tuesday FIFA was threatened by a "danger" stalking the organisation.
Yet despite the likelihood of Blatter's re-election for a fourth consecutive term, the FIFA leadership may find it hard to resist widespread demands for sweeping reform of the organisation.
In a significant development on Tuesday, four of FIFA's biggest commercial partners – Coca-Cola, Adidas, Emirates airline and Visa – all expressed concern about the negative impact of the scandals on football.
FIFA's sponsorship deals have helped to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the organisation since Blatter took over in 1998, making FIFA the richest sports body on the planet with cash reserves of more than $1 billion.
CONCACAF's executive committee meanwhile dismissed a move by Lisle Austin, acting president during Warden's suspension, to sack general secretary Chuck Blazer.
Austin did not have the authority to make such a move, said a statement posted on the CONCACAF website.
It was Blazer's allegations of possible misdeeds by bin Hammam and Warner that helped ignite the scandal.
