Sepp Blatter was re-elected on Wednesday as president of world soccer body Fifa, despite bitter opposition from critics who claim he has taken the organisation to the brink of bankruptcy.
Blatter (66) received 139 votes to beat African soccer chief Issa Hayatou, who received 56 votes, at the congress of Fifa member nations in the South Korean capital.
The vote came after hours of angry debate between Blatter’s supporters and detractors.
Blatter received strong support from North and South America, the Caribbean and North Africa, where countries point to the work he has done to benefit developing countries and to get the World Cup to Africa.
Anti-Blatter campaigners in Europe and southern Africa claim the former Swiss army colonel has run the world soccer body as his personal fiefdom, leading Fifa into dire financial straits.
”My dear friends. It is really with a lot of emotion that I registered, not the result, I registered your deep trust, your deep trust in Fifa and in me,” Blatter said after the vote.
”You cannot imagine what it means for me having been during months accused by a certain directed press by saying what a bad man I am … and you all cannot be so bad. So therefore we are all good,” he said.
He added – in English, French and Spanish – ”The football community is not a liar”.
In his final speech before the vote, Blatter said that, four years ago, he had stood ”with a certain hesitation but with lots of heart”.
”Today I can do it with confidence, with certainty. I am doing it with my heart but also with my head,” he said.
He called on members to support his soccer education and development projects. He said young people, helped by Fifa’s programmes in developing countries ”cannot all become champions but they can become better human beings”.
Before the vote, Hayatou said a Fifa president should be allowed to serve for a maximum of two terms.
”In two years, Fifa will celebrate its centenary. This is the right time to give it a new lease on life, new dynamism and new strength. I want to be the man to lead this revival with you,” Hayatou said.
Blatter was first elected president of Fifa in France in 1998, defeating European soccer chief Lennart Johansson in a vote in Paris.
The designated successor of former president Joao Havelange, he won the election by promising to introduce national soccer development programmes and give the World Cup to Africa. Critics allege that bribes also helped.
In his four years as president, Blatter has played a much more hands-on role than his predecessor, limiting the powers of his general-secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen, who hit back by pointing the finger at Blatter for serious wrongdoing.
Blatter has said that the avalanche of criticism in recent weeks is because Johansson could never accept losing the election.
He insists that Fifa masterfully controlled the damage from the bankruptcy of its former marketing partner ISL/ISMM, the cancellation of its World Cup insurance in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the recent insolvency of television rights partner Kirch.
The appointment is for four years. – Sapa-AP