Blatter set to survive despite controversy

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is almost certain to be re-elected for a second four-year term at the helm of soccer's world governing body next week.

Whether he completes the term is another matter entirely.

Despite months of ferocious battles with his executive committee, a blood-letting fall-out with his general secretary and a torrent of vilification from the media around the globe, Blatter seems set to sweep to victory over his only opponent Issa Hayatou of Cameroon.

Hayatou, the president of the African Football Confederation, has campaigned on a ticket to bring "transparency" back to FIFA, to restore the integrity of the world body and to open up financial records to prove that everything is in order.

But, from soundings taken from delegates over the last three weeks, it would appear that the majority of the 204 associations able to vote in Seoul next Wednesday, two days before the World Cup opens, would prefer to keep the status quo.

Hayatou could yet spring a major surprise but even some of his closest backers predict he will do well to get 50 votes. And that is including the one he presumably will cast for himself.

POLITICAL OPPONENT

The question being asked is: Why?

Why will the vast majority of delegates, including many from Hayatou's own continent, vote for Blatter, a man alleged by his opponents to have cost FIFA some 800 million Swiss francs due to financial mismanagement, plagued by rumours that his supporters bought votes in the 1998 election and under investigation by the Zurich prosecutor for corruption?

The answer comes from Lennart Johansson, one of Blatter's staunchest political opponents.

"There are 204 member countries of FIFA and how many of them do you really think care who the president of FIFA is? Small Asian or African countries don't care. What difference does it make to Nepal for example?

"What they do care about is getting their grants as promised -- their one-million-dollar shareout over four years. They want to keep the status quo. They do not want to rock the boat.

"We in Europe feel very differently about this but for hundreds of smaller countries, as long as they get their grant from FIFA, they are happy. Happy with the president, who is keeping his promise to them. Happy that FIFA is funding their development programmes."

Now 66, Blatter has been at FIFA for 27 years and together with his predecessor Joao Havelange -- who was president for 28 years before reluctantly stepping down at the age of 82 four years ago -- virtually built the modern FIFA.

As general secretary himself from 1981 to 1998, Blatter knew the innermost detailed workings of virtually every decision ever taken during those years. He still does. That kind of knowledge can be useful at election time.

EXPLOSIVE REPORT

That he now finds himself wallowing in the mire is because he did a far better job as general secretary than he has done as president. Most of his presidency has been spent fighting his executive committee or, as has now become public, battling with his general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen, whose explosive report on May 3 led to 11 members of the executive committee filing a complaint with the Zurich court.

Blatter, who denies the corruption allegations against him and says he is the target of a smear campaign, might well walk out of the mire shining in silver armour like a medieval knight. But there are many who doubt that Blatter's charm and winning smile can rescue him.

David Davies, the executive director of the English Football Association said last week: "There is absolutely no way any association could rightfully vote for him while he is facing the possibility of criminal charges.

"If he comes out Mr Clean all well and good. But we would ask every FA in the world: vote for Mr Hayatou. These allegations are never going to go away."

Last Friday, Johansson likened Blatter to American president Richard Nixon who was forced by the Watergate scandal to resign from the White House in August 1974, two years after winning a landslide election.

At the weekend Mr Blatter, in a 32-page statement, answered all the charges against him, saying he was blameless and would prove that to the world.

The fact remains, most of the people in his world already believe him and will show it in the election on May 29.