Despite the corruption charges and two separate criminal investigations by U.S. and Swiss, Sepp Blatter was re-elected as FIFA president on Friday for the fifth consecutive term and was chosen to lead world soccer.
The 79-year old was given another four-year term by the 209 FIFA member federations after Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan conceded defeat after losing 133-73 in the first round.
Prince Ali's promise of a clean break from FIFA's worst scandal in its 111-year history was straightaway rejected and the members crowned Blatter, who is their embattled president of 17 years, in spite of his tarnishing record.
The election held on Friday, when U.S. and Swiss federal investigations struck at the heart of Sepp’s "football family". Two of the FIFA vice presidents along with a recently elected FIFA executive committee member were still behind the bars, by the time the votes were counted.
Prince Ali managed to push the election to the second round and ended up by getting a surprising 73 votes.
Blatter has defended himself in the pre-election address that it was very tough for him or for FIFA to spy on every one hence cannot take the blame for whatever happened in the soccer world.
- Manohar
