Sepp Blatter wins FIFA presidency vote despite ‘bloody nose’

Under-fire Sepp Blatter has been voted in for four more years as Fifa president – but only after his rival inflicted a “bloody nose” on him.

More than a third of FIFA’s 209 associations voted for Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan as significant numbers turned against Mr Blatter following the crisis that has struck the world governing body this week.

The Swiss bureaucrat, 79, won the first round by 133 votes to 73, but he failed to gain a two-thirds majority, and Prince Ali, the 39-year-old Sandhurst graduate, then withdrew from the contest rather than force a second round of voting.

The election in Zurich was held amid the continuing fall-out from the arrest of seven Fifa officials in the city and a total of 18 people connected to football indicted on corruption charges by the US justice department.

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke, who had earlier backed the idea of a co-ordinated European boycott of the World Cup, said: “This is not over by any means. To quote the Attorney General this is the beginning of the process, not the end.

“The idea Blatter could reform Fifa is suspect. I’d be very surprised if he was still in this job in two years’ time.

“That was a bloody nose for him. It may not have been devastation but he never looked comfortable the whole time.

“It was as though ‘you might win this one, but you might not win the whole thing’.

“That was a good result for Prince Ali, who had more than a third of the people in Fifa saying to Blatter ‘we don’t want you’ – and given the powers of patronage that’s a good result.”

The outcome is also set to see further protests from Uefa – the first action has come from David Gill, the Football Association vice-chairman who will reject the post of British vice-president as he does not want to serve under Mr Blatter.

Mr Gill will not attend the post-Congress executive committee meeting, where a decision is set to be taken on the allocation of World Cup places to each confederation.

John Delaney, chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, believes the latest scandal will mean Mr Blatter does not see out his four-year term.

He told Press Association Sport: “I still think this is the beginning of the end of Sepp Blatter.

“I don’t see him seeing his four years out – the momentum is too great. We now have to see how best we can use the European muscle.”

Mr Blatter had told the 209 associations who gathered for the Fifa Congress that the crisis would not have happened if countries other than Russia and Qatar had won the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

In what appeared a reference to the United States and England losing out, Mr Blatter called for unity.

Most of the media investigations into Fifa have come from Britain, while it is the US justice authorities whose actions led to the indictments of 18 people, including charges that a Fifa bank account was used to channel a 10million US dollar (£6.54million) World Cup voting bribe.

Mr Blatter said: “If two other countries had emerged from the envelope I think we may not have these problems.”

Russia president Vladimir Putin on Thursday had criticised the American indictments and claimed they were designed to undermine Mr Blatter’s re-election.

The Swiss added of the police swoop on the seven Fifa officials: “I am not going to use the word coincidence but I do have a small question mark.”

After his re-election was confirmed, Mr Blatter told the hall: “Thank you that you accepted me, that for the next four years I will be in command of this boat called Fifa, and we will bring it back, off shore, and back to the beach, we will bring it back, where finally football can be played, beach soccer can be played everywhere.”

He said there were organisational problems to solve at Fifa and changes to make in some competitions, but they would not touch the World Cup.

“I take the responsibility to bring back Fifa, we can do it, and I’m convinced we can do it.”

He received a standing ovation at the end of a speech which he finished with: “Let’s go Fifa! Let’s go Fifa!”

Swiss police had earlier cleared the congress hall following a bomb threat.