Defiant, resistant and in power
AT HELM Bin Al-Hussein, Uefa fail to topple the incumbent as Blatter wins fifth term as Fifa president
ZURICH: Sepp Blatter concluded a difficult week by handily winning a fifth term as president of world soccer’s governing body Friday, beating Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan in a vote of the body’s member organizations.
Blatter soundly defeated Ali in the first round of voting, 133-73, but fell just short of the percentage needed for re-election. But Ali conceded just as the election was headed to a second ballot.
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.
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 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.
For years, FIFA’s membership has largely operated in lock step under 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.
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. OK, so be it. I will shoulder it.” The duel between incumbent Sepp Blatter and Prince Ali bin al Hussein was to go into a second round when Blatter fell seven votes short of the required majority.
Blatter, seeking a fifth term, got 133 votes in the first round, with 140 needed for the two thirds majority. Bin al Hussein got 73.
Bin al Hussein, however, pulled out after the first round loss, paving way for Blatter to be re-elected to a fifth term, without having to stretch the fight into the second round.
Ahead of the voting, Blatter, who joined FIFA in 1975, said he felt that he had only been at FIFA for a short time. “What is time anyway. I find that the time I have spent at FIFA is very short,” he said, “The more one ages the more time flies by quickly. I am with you, and I would like to stay with you,” he said. JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the “failure” of the Palestinian authority to suspend Israel’s FIFA membership during its Congress, stressing that the only way to achieve peace would be through negotiations.
“Our international effort has proven itself and led to the failure of the Palestinian authority attempt to oust us from FIFA,” Netanyahu said on Friday, extending thanks to all parties that partook in the international efforts, and the Israeli delegation in Switzerland led by Ofer Eini, chairman of the Israel Football Association (IFA), reports Efe.
“The state of Israel is interested in a peace that will ensure security for its citizens but this will not be achieved through coercion and distorting the truth. The only way to achieve peace is to begin negotiations between the sides.”
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) had previously planned to propose a vote during Friday’s meeting on the possible suspension of IFA as Israel has refused to ban five teams from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories that play in the Israeli Premier League.
However, the Palestinian delegation withdrew its request to put the suspension to a vote as PFA president Jibril Rajoub explained It is my congress, I have the right to make the closing remarks. This is a very important congress. You see I am in a good mood. I was a little bit nervous today, but now I am the president of everybody, I am the president of the whole Fifa. This game is important, but more important, enjoy life.
the fifth term
after winning
I thank you, you have accepted me for the next four years. I will be in command of this boat of Fifa. We will bring it back off shore. We need in this committee women. We need ladies. We won’t touch the World Cup. I am a faithful man, God, Allah, whoever, they will help us to bring back this Fifa.
has the last laugh
The Jordanian prince after pulling out of the second round that he had agreed with his colleagues’ counsel to avoid bad blood in the governing body, but added that he would not give up on the cause to oblige Israel to respect FIFA regulations.
While the FIFA Congress did not vote on Israel’s FIFA status, it did approve of the creation of a mechanism to verify if Israel poses obstacles to Palestinian football, it will also devote time to the teams from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.