Everything you need to know about the Fifa presidential election

28 May 2015 20:01

It may seem like the the band carrying on playing as the Titanic sank, but the Fifa presidential election will go ahead as planned as if everything were normal.

Sepp Blatter will attempt to cling to power amid fresh Fifa corruption allegations emerging from separate inquiries by the US Department of Justice and the Swiss government, which saw seven top officials arrested.

Here’s everything you need to know about the election…

Will it definitely go ahead?

Sepp Blatter at the Fifa congress
(Walter Bieri/AP)

It looks that way. Michel Platini – president of European football’s governing body Uefa – has asked for it to be postponed, but his plea has fallen on deaf ears.

Who is standing against Blatter?

Fifa presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein
( John Walton/PA)

Prince Ali bin al-Hussein - the 39-year-old third son of King Hussein of Jordan and a 43rd generation direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad, according to his official website. He’s the head of the Jordan Football Association and has been a Fifa vice president for four years. Encouragingly, he was one of the executive committee members who called for the Garcia Report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to be made public. “I am a straight-forward person with straight-forward ideas and ethics — a person who loves our sport,” he said in his manifesto. “I believe in uncompromising integrity. In good leadership. In fair play.”

Does he have any chance?

Blatter still has a lot of support. As Platini said: “If he has decided to stay on, it means he is still strong.” But there has never been a greater will for change. Platini again: “There’s a renewal of democracy in the African zone to vote freely. As I said to Europe, vote freely – but vote for Prince Ali.”

How does the election work?

A vote at the 2011 Fifa presidential election
(Michael Probst/AP)

Both candidates will have the opportunity to address the FIFA Congress, before the member associations (those are individual nations’ associations, like England’s FA, Scotland’s SFA and Ireland’s FAI) vote. If either candidate achieves two-thirds of the eligible vote in the first round then he wins outright – if all of the 209 associations vote, that means 139 to win outright. If there’s no outright victory, the winner will simply be whoever gains more votes in the second round.

Is there any chance Blatter might quit?

It would be wildly out of character. Blatter shows an unshakeable desire to stay in his role, whether because he really does feel he’s the man to sort this mess out or for some other reason. Platini said today he had pleaded with Blatter to resign, but to no avail. He said: “I told Mr Blatter ‘we started together and now I am asking you to step down as we cannot continue this way’. He told me ‘it’s too late, I can’t today all of sudden leave when Congress starts this afternoon’.”

Does Blatter not accept any responsibility?

Fifa president Sepp Blatter
(Jorge Saenz/AP)

It would seem not. He spoke today for the first time since yesterday’s arrests. He said: “We or I cannot monitor everyone all of the time – if people want to do wrong they will also try to hide it. The next few months will not be easy for FIFA, I’m sure more bad news will follow but it’s necessary to restore trust in our organisation. Let this be the turning point. We have lost the trust and we must now earn it back. It must fall to me for the well-being of our organisation to find the way forward to fix things.” Not the words of a man who thinks he’s done anything wrong.

What would be the options if Blatter won?

Uefa president Michel Platini
Micehl Platini (Michael Probst/AP)

A European boycott of the World Cup has been suggested – and Platini, although clearly not in favour of it, did not rule it out. Asked about the prospect, he said: “There may be proposals. I honestly don’t wish that.” That would be a major shock to the system if it did happen – not least because one of Uefa’s members, Russia, is hosting the next tournament. It’s hard to imagine a World Cup without European teams having much legitimacy – four of the last five winners have come from the continent.

Who in football has spoken out?

Diego Maradona speaks on the second day of the SoccerEx Asian Forum
Diego Maradona (Raad Adayleh/AP)

Many legends of the game have spoken out against Blatter and the way Fifa is being run. Among them were Gary Lineker, who described the organisation as an “embarrassment” and said this week’s events were “nauseating”, and Diego Maradona, who said Fifa “hate soccer” and that he was “enjoying” news of the arrests.

Source: SNAPPA