FIFA's Sepp Blatter captures fifth term in office
Zurich — Prince Ali has withdrawn from FIFA's presidential race, leaving incumbent Sepp Blatter to capture a fifth term in office.
The prince from Jordan pulled out only minutes after Blatter captured 133 of the 206 valid votes cast in a secret paper ballot in the first round of voting. Ali had won 73.
Since neither man had won 140 votes, the voting had been primed to go into a second round.
Blatter told FIFA delegates "I don't need to introduce myself to you" just minutes before they began to vote in Zurich to pick the next FIFA president.
The 79-year-old Swiss has led the world soccer body for 17 years. His challenger Friday was 39-year-old Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Jordan's soccer chief.
The election comes only two days after U.S. officials charged 14 people — including nine senior FIFA officials — with corrupting world soccer for decades in a $150 million scheme to line their pockets. Blatter was not among those charged but has promised to clean up "the storm."
Blatter said Friday that "we don't need revolutions but we always need evolutions."
Speaking to FIFA delegates in Zurich on Friday, the 79-year-old Blatter promised "we will bring back FIFA. We will do it!"
There were weak claps and even some boos in Zurich's Hallenstadion when Blatter was announced as winner. FIFA has been rocked by serious corruption allegations this week by U.S. and Swiss judicial officials, which they said go back decades. Blatter has led FIFA for 17 years.
Blatter admitted "I am not perfect, no one is perfect" but promised to hand over FIFA in better shape to a successor four years from now.
"Together we go! Let's go FIFA!" he exhorted.
The election went ahead Friday after U.S. and Swiss federal investigations struck at the heart of Blatter's "football family" this week. Two FIFA vice presidents and a recently elected FIFA executive committee member were still in custody Friday as the votes were counted.
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.
Before the second round started, Prince Ali stood before the congress and conceded.
"I want to thank all of you who were brave enough to support me," said the prince, who previously spoke of a culture of intimidation at FIFA. "It's been a wonderful journey in terms of knowing you, working with you."
Blatter has blamed others for bringing shame and humiliation on the sport. In a pre-election address to voters on Friday, Blatter said it was "impossible" for him and FIFA to "keep an eye" on everyone and be responsible for everything that happened in world soccer.
Blatter won despite calls for his resignation from UEFA president Michel Platini and others. Platini said Thursday that UEFA could pull out of FIFA and withdraw from the World Cup if Blatter was re-elected.
FIFA's big-money sponsors have also called for change within FIFA. Visa warned Thursday that it could pull out of its contract, which is worth at least $25 million a year through 2022.
In what appeared to be warning to UEFA, Blatter pledged to change the representation of his influential executive committee, where Europe currently has eight of 25 voting members.
Platini sat still and did not clap during Blatter's post-victory speech.
Blatter also said he would retain a 32-team World Cup and resist expanding what is FIFA's cash cow.
The defeated 39-year-old prince was a FIFA vice president for the past four years with a close-up view of Blatter's previous scandal-hit mandate.
Blatter was re-elected unopposed in 2011 after promising to fight corruption and support key investigations of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests and a bribery scandal which removed his Qatari opponent from the presidential ballot.
Those probes were conducted in-house by FIFA's own judicial bodies. The latest investigations promise deeper trouble for FIFA with federal law enforcement agencies delving into soccer's affairs.
Raids on FIFA's favorite luxury downtown Zurich hotel and its own headquarters were launched early Wednesday by Swiss police.
Senior FIFA officials were among seven men arrested at the request of American federal prosecutors investigating bribery, money-laundering and wire fraud. The 2018 and 2022 World Cups — awarded to Russia and Qatar, respectively — are the focus of a separate Swiss federal probe of suspected financial wrongdoing.
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