If Sepp Blatter believes for one second that retaining the FIFA presidency is a ringing endorsement of his 17-year watch, he is arrogant, ignorant, and delusional.
Overnight in Zurich, Blatter didn’t receive two thirds of the 206 countries that voted in this farcically-timed election in the light of widespread corruption.
Blatter received 133 votes to Jordan’s Prince Ali’s 73, so it required a second round, but the 39-year-old Prince bailed out.
So the FIFA Congress handed the 79-year-old Blatter his fifth term in the chair.
The Congress was made up of six regions:
Africa (Caf), with 54 countries.
Europe (Uefa), wih 53.
Asia (Afc), with 46.
North and Central America (Concacaf),with 35.
Oceania ((Ofc), with 11.
And South America (Conmebol),with 10.
That’s 209 countries, but only 206 voted.
Before Blatter gets comfortable, there are three major upheavals looming, any one of which will see Blatter on his bike.
The Swiss and FBI prosecutors who have already struck with 14 arrests of senior FIFA officials, are poised to reopen the bidding processes that saw Russia awarded the 2018 World Cup, and Qatar the 2022 tournament.
Both voting procedures were on the nose.
T hot favourite to host the 2018 Cup, England, only received two of 22 votes, and went out in the first ballot.
Russia with 13 votes won the bid, from Spain and Portugal’s seven votes, to the Netherlands’ and Spain’s two.
For the 2022 Cup, Australia with just one vote in 22 went out in the first round, Japan with two votes went out in the second, and South Korea with five votes went out in the third.
That left just two countries, with Qatar gaining 14 votes to USA’s eight.
If the Swiss prosecutors find corruption in the decision process that’s been widely alleged since March 2009, then Blatter will go.
The second upheavel will be if UEFA decide to withdraw from FIFA, and go it alone.
UEFA has been led since 2007 by Frenchman Michel Pltini, widely-rated one of the greatest footballers of all time.
If UEFA go it alone FIFA has had it, so too the World Cup, with 13 of the world’s top-ranked 20 countries in their midst.
Germany’s ranked one, Belgium (3), Netherlands (6), Portugal (7), Switzerland (9), Spain (10), France (11), Romania (12), Italy (13), England (14), Croatia (17), Czech Republic (18), and Slovakia (19).
The third looming upheavel are the major sponsors – Coca Cola, Visa, Budweiser, Hyundai/Kia Motors, plus Adidas and Nike, to name a few.
Any one or more withdrawing their sponsorship will be financially crippling for FIFA. Can you imagine a potential new sponsor surfacing when so many VIPs around the world want to see Blatter’s back?
No way.
So don’t get too comfortable, Sepp.
Kaks
Roar Guru
You have no proof of any corruption occuring, yet you're saying that every corporation is corrupt like it is well documented and the information is a google search away. And i refer to your original comment; "Every single corporate can readily be exposed for the same graft & corruption around the world" Go on then, readily expose the list of corporations i have listed above as you believe it is so easy to do. IF you are unable (which I believe to be the case) then i suggest you stop going around commenting like you have a tin foil hat on your head and suggesting the world is out to get you. You constantly comment slating people who disagree with you and demanding them to provide proof to back up what they say, yet you never do so - ever. So back up what you claim in your original comment or stop spouting your unwarranted, unfounded agenda.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"That was no coincidental arrest of 14 senior FIFA officials" You may want to review your facts. 14 people were arrested. 9 were Fifa officials. 5 were corporate executives. Follow the money trail. Which industry has the biggest financial stake in Football? HINT: It starts with "M" ends with "A" with "edi" between.
SM
Guest
Blatter is many things, but 'incredibly stupid' is certainly not one of them. Far from it in fact.
pat malone
Guest
damm football illiterates, they should know better than to challenge the great Fussmeister
peeeko
Guest
if you think the system is fair and representative then im not gong to bother arguing.
peeeko
Guest
but Jack, we must be football illiterates as Fuss says. i am not sure what the answer is but the current system is not fair
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
It's taken US prosecutors 20+ years to finally bring charges against certain individuals. It's not because the corruption did not occur. It's because it's rare to be able to obtain admissible evidence from corrupt practices. The smart crooks don't leave paper trails.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Go on then, expose the major sponsors of the last world cup if it is so easy to do so. - Adidas - Castrol - Visa - Emirates - McDonalds - Budweiser - Sony - Hyundai - Kia Should be easy as you think everyone in the world is corrupt (yet you have never shown any proof of it, while demanding everyone else back up their comments)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"COAG was designed to ensure the smaller states and territories could have a forum where they could essentially partially compensate for the disproportionate voting power of the country’s more populous voting blocks." So, what's your point? Fifa allows smaller nations to have a forum where they can essentially partially compensate for the disproportionate power of the countries with huge financial reserves. Uefa which is now (comically) being held as the beacon for all that is right in football by the football illiterates has the same internal voting structure - 1 vote for each member, regardless of population, or football strength. In fact, Gibralter with a population of 29.5k (about the size of the crowd at this years ALeague Grand Final) is now a full member of Uefa and has 1 vote; same as Russia with its population of 143.5 million (about 5 times the population of Australia); same as Germany the World Champions; same as Englad, the home of The Game. Interestingly, Gibralter has not (yet) been accepted as a member of Fifa.
c
Guest
the second upheaval appears financially disastrous for starters the sponsorship revenue would be substantially diminished with two separate competitions
Jack
Guest
Again, that's a highly misinformed comment. COAG isn't the primary instrument for legislating and deciding policy in this country. The parliament is. COAG was designed to ensure the smaller states and territories could have a forum where they could essentially partially compensate for the disproportionate voting power of the country's more populous voting blocks. But it's not the primary instrument of deciding policy, legislation or even assigning the majority of federal funding. It's fairly limited in reality to areas like GST. Are you deliberately attempting to be misleading, or do you really not understand how the Australian democracy operates?
Jack
Guest
That's an awful analogy. In a country one person has one vote because each person represents just one person. This is more akin to electorates, and in effect FIFA is more akin to us making all of Sydney a single electorate on the same footing as Parkes NSW. There's a reason the electorates are much more tightly packed as density increases; its not fair to have tiny towns having voting power far in excess of their size. It's unavoidable to a certain extent, but you can actually take measures to mitigate it like we have here. What you're advocating for is a system where technically you could have the Pitcairn Islands, a "country" With a population of 56 people having the same voting power as China, a country with 23 MILLION TIMES as many people. Do you honestly think that's a system that works "as it should be"?
Jack
Guest
If you think this is equivalent to a "shareholder" system, I can only assume that you have zero understanding of how the share market operates or any idea about economics in general. If FIFA were issuing shares, then the economic power and interest in the game of the shareholders would be accurately reflected in their votings rights. This "democracy" is akin to the Gerrymander structures in parts of the U.S. and Japan, where areas that are virtually unpopulated have as much voting power as the most densely populated cities. It's only nominally democratic, and anyone with even the vaguest understanding of political systems can see that.
David Lord
Expert
Hi there sheek, you are quite right, there aren't enough delegates with bottle to dump Blatter, but the law will do the trick and don't be surprised if it's before Christmas. That was no coincidental arrest of 14 senior FIFA officials just two days before Blatter was re-elected FIFA president. But those 14 are the small fry, the minnows - Blatter's the big catch. I've described Blatter as arrogant, ignorant, and delusional. Today I add senile. It's just been reported Blatter is "shocked" at the way the US judiciary has targeted football's governing body. The real shock is why they haven't targeted FIFA long ago. There aren't enough words to desribe the mentality of this incredibly stupid man who genuinely believes he's untouchable. With Swiss and FBI investigators circling like sharks for the kill, Blatter's days are numbered. sheek, it will be the investigators who will talk the tallk and walk the walk - loving every minute of it. Blatter won the fight yesterday, but the war begins today.
Bondy
Guest
In watching the voting process last night live I couldnt help but think FIFA looks very similar to the Church Of Scientology ,unfortunately.. .
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
No different to Victoria, with a population of 5.3 million citizens having 1 vote at COAG and the NT with a population not much larger than Geelong also has 1 vote at COAG.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
Jeez, I hope you never get the job of defining electoral boundaries. Your house, one vote, Mebourne, one vote. fair as.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Just like some citizens may pay a hundred thousand dollars in tax each year, some people pay $0. But, each citizen only gets 1 vote on election day. As it should be.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
Not that the votes should be dependent on the size of the country but perhaps so many votes per head of footballing population or so many votes per club numbers. For example San marino has 15 clubs as against Poland's 51 clubs. It is disproportionate.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
" Amazing. Are the majority of FIFA member association presidents a bunch of spineless prats or what?? " You bet they are, why would they give up the gravy train they're all on.