In unsurprising news, Sepp Blatter wins re-election as the president of FIFA for the fifth time. Despite FIFA by-laws requiring a second round of voting as Blatter did not gain the tw0-thirds majority needed to win on the first vote, Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein has conceded the election to Blatter. Blatter was ahead 133 votes to Prince Ali’s 73 following the first round of voting, with 3 spoiled ballots. Blatter needed to retain just 105 of the 133 votes he got in the first round to clinch in the second round.
In announcing his withdrawl, Prince Ali made the following statement to the crowd, “I just wanted to thank all of you. It’s been a wonderful journey. I want to especially thank all of you who were brave enough to vote for me.”
While UEFA, Canada and the United States had pledged their support behind Prince Ali, it was not enough as Blatter had a large bloc of support from Africa and Asia, which combined with other results was enough to win the day in Friday’s election.
Earlier in the week, Blatter was expected to win in a landslide and while he still won, it is clear that the arrests and events of Wednesday has eroded some of his support within the organization.
Following the vote, Blatter made the following statement. “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.”
Blatter went on to say, “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. At the end of my (four year) term, I will give Fifa to my successor. It will be robust.
I like you. I like my job. I am not perfect. Nobody is perfect. Together we go. Let’s go Fifa! Let’s go Fifa!”
