2014 - 2015 Football Thread - Page 739

Support for Sepp Blatter extending his 17-year hold over global soccer weakened in the final hours before his re-election bid.

His longtime backers in the Caribbean said they may shift their support to his rival, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, as pressure grew following criminal probes on two continents into soccer’s governing body. Also announcing support for the Jordanian prince were the U.S. and Canada.

“I came here without a doubt that I’m going to vote for Blatter,” said Randolph Harris, president of Barbados soccer. Now, however, “the people of the Caribbean have realized with the latest scandal they have to think carefully about the future.”
With 209 votes in the secret ballot, Blatter has received the solid backing of confederations in Africa and Asia, with Europe the only group whose leaders are speaking out against him. Still, he would need two-thirds in his column to win on the first round. As support peels away, that first-round victory is looking less assured.

“For us, this is a vote for good governance,” U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati said about his backing for Prince Ali.

UEFA, the group that oversees soccer in Europe, had floated the idea of a boycott, but an Irish official on Thursday said the Europeans will participate. That clears the way for a vote Friday.
Blatter, a skilled tactician when it comes to soccer politics, knows the numbers are still probably in his favor even as FIFA is rocked by a widening corruption probe and sponsors step up criticism of the organization.
Voting System

“I am sure more bad news will follow,” Blatter said Thursday in Zurich. “I know many people hold me ultimately responsible. I cannot monitor everyone all of the time.”

Though Europe is home to soccer’s richest teams, biggest stars and last three World Cup winners, its power on election day is neutered by FIFA’s one-country, one-vote system. That gives the Caribbean island of Montserrat (population 4,900) as much say in who runs the global game as Germany (population 81 million), which in Brazil last year won its fourth World Cup title.

The shift by the Caribbean voters is due in part to the FIFA president not voicing support for their regional leader, Jeffrey Webb, after his arrest this week in Zurich, presidents of the Grenada and Barbados soccer associations said in interviews late Thursday.

“Sepp Blatter made a mistake,” said Cheney Joseph, the president of Grenada soccer, who declined to specify for whom he’d cast his vote. “The day before, he was hugging Jeff.”
Harris of Barbados also declined to say how he’d vote, citing the ballot’s secrecy.

And after yesterday’s raids, the Asian federation -- home to Blatter’s challenger, Prince Ali (by FIFA’s logic, Jordan belongs to Asia) -- stressed its support for the incumbent.

Blatter said: "If two other countries had emerged from the envelope I think we may not have these problems. But we can't go back in time, we're not prophets, we can't say what would have happened."

After reports of a bomb scare at the Hallenstadion, there has been an announcement in Zurich that Congress will reconvene shortly after the scheduled lunch break. Stay with us.