Amid Corruption Scandal, FIFA Will Hold Presidential Election

By Eyder Peralta / NPR

Published May 29, 2015 at 12:55 AM PDT

This story was published more than 9 years ago.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter attends a press conference in Jerusalem on May 19.

Just two days after a group of leading officials were arrested and charged with corruption and bribery, FIFA, soccer's world governing body, is holding a presidential election.

The Swiss Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, who has been FIFA's chief since 1998, is facing off with Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, but don't expect a big shakeup.

Here's how Dead Spin sets up the vote:

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"... The football associations in a number of countries have announced, with varying degrees of certainty, their support for Prince Ali. Those countries are Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, England, Finland,Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Scotland, Sweden, United States,Uruguay, and Wales. There may be more that I missed.

"The astute among you will observe that there are only 19 countries on that list. It's a good start, but still a far cry from the 105 votes Prince Ali will need to unseat Blatter. In fact, pretty much everybody that has handicapped the election— even after the vast scale of corruption in FIFA that was revealed when the US Department of Justice went gangbusters — believes that Blatter is still going to win handily."

The vote is cast by secret ballot. Blatter would need to win at least two-thirds of the vote to win on the first ballot and he would need a simple majority to win on ensuing ballots.

Like Dead Spin, The New York Times reports that trying to figure out votes is complicated, but Blatter is expected to win. The paper reports:

"Michel Platini, the president of European soccer's governing body, called for Mr. Blatter to step down during an emergency meeting of top officials convened early Thursday and then enthusiastically endorsed Prince Ali. "'After what happened recently, I think enough is enough, and a number of people think likewise,' Mr. Platini told reporters. 'There is a radical change in the mind-set of a number of heads of associations.'

"Mr. Platini predicted Prince Ali would receive '45 or 46' of the 53 European votes, while campaign advisers for Prince Ali often have played up how much support he will receive outside Europe. Sunil Gulati, the head of U.S. Soccer and a member of FIFA's governing executive committee, said on Thursday that the Americans supported Prince Ali but it remains unclear how many other countries from Concacaf, the regional body for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, will vote against Mr. Blatter."

For his part, Blatter addressed the controversy yesterday. As we reported, he said that arrests "have cast a long shadow over football and over this league's congress."

But he did not respond to Platini's call for his resignation.

Instead, Blatter tried to distance himself from the alleged corruption: "I cannot monitor everyone all of the time," he said. "If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it."

The presidential vote, by the way, is not the only controversial one scheduled for today: FIFA will also vote on whether to suspend Israel from the federation. According to The Guardian, the Palestinian Football Association will push for the vote unless "Israel expels five teams based in illegal Israeli settlements from its football league."