Swiss set to be elected unopposed for fourth term despite public outcry at scandals surrounding world football's governing body
Sepp Blatter insists that despite the serial corruption scandals wrecking his organisation's image, his position at the head of the world game is secure.
Yet never has a Fifa president – the Swiss is due to be elected unopposed for a fourth term on Wednesday – faced such an intense public outcry over the state of the organisation, which has seemed close to implosion as scandal after scandal has come to light.
Blatter, who welcomed Fifa's 208 affiliated associations to the annual congress on Tuesday, plans to press on regardless. "I have been at Fifa for 36 years," he boasted on Monday. He has been president for 13 years and Fifa insiders describe the job as "Blatter's life".
But his proposed new four-year term is unlikely to be without further controversy and many doubt whether he can remain immune to pressures exerted from either inside or outside the Fifa "family". The question is, can any of them dislodge football's great survivor from his place at the top of the world's most popular sport?
Sponsors
The force of football fans' feeling against Blatter has begun to cause disquiet among the multinationals who have attached themselves to the Fifa brand, through its quadrennial World Cup tournament. Adidas and Coca-Cola have both urged change in recent days; now Fifa's financial services and airline "partners" have expressed concern.
"The current situation is clearly not good for the game," said Visa on Tuesday, while Fifa's airline party said: "Emirates, like all football fans around the world, is disappointed with the issues that are currently surrounding the administration of this sport."
Behind the words, there are eye-watering numbers. Fifa has budgeted for almost $300m (£182m) of revenue from marketing in 2012. Adidas alone has paid $325m between 2007 and 2014 to be the official sportswear manufacturer.
Fifa's sponsors are, broadly, US and European concerns for whom corporate image is revenue sensitive, hence their expressions of dismay. Yet whether their unusually tough words will be backed by action is questionable. When pressed, the companies are keen to stress the value of their brand association is with tournaments and players rather than Fifa itself.
Furthermore, the next two World Cups will take place in Brazil and Russia, emerging markets whose richest businesses would relish the opportunity to replace any existing Fifa partners who choose not to renew their associations.
The multinationals would be reluctant to concede such lucrative marketing territory so easily. As Fifa's crisis rumbles on, Blatter knows he still holds some valuable commercial cards.
Red card rating – threat to Blatter's presidency:
Fifa's executive committee
If Fifa's 24-man ruling body (now 22, after the suspensions on Sunday of the vice-president Jack Warner and former presidential challenger Mohamed bin Hammam) had any plans to mobilise against Blatter, its moment passed in a meeting on Monday. In that summit – after which Blatter announced "Crisis? What is a crisis?" – he is believed to have received unanimous support.
Incredibly, only 24 hours after Warner declared that Blatter "must be stopped" while warning of a "football tsunami" about to be unleashed, he called on the Concacaf confederation (covering North and Central America) to support Blatter in election.
But the 75-year-old is not without his adversaries. Korea's Chung Mong-Joon, the vice-president who loses his committee post on Wednesday after what many believe to have been a Blatter-orchestrated coup, remains highly influential in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
He is a scion of the family that owns Hyundai, another Fifa sponsor, but has suffered embarrassment with the failure of Korea's 2022 World Cup bid and has become an implacable enemy of Blatter. As the Swiss faces the Fifa congress, Chung would like to embarrass him, so an abstention by the AFC remains a possibility.
National football associations
Although the response to the English Football Association's demand for a postponement of Blatter's coronation was muted – only the Scottish FA has publicly endorsed it – Blatter could still receive a little bloody nose, thanks to the process for which he is such a stickler.
Article 27 of Fifa's statutes stipulates that "elections shall be conducted by secret ballot". Blatter can count on the staunch support of some influential members of the Fifa congress – Brazil, Argentina and Russia as well as most of Europe's footballing powers – but there are many among the 205 federations invested with a vote who are disgruntled with Blatter's stewardship of Fifa.
Some are angry at the damage to football's reputation; others at the way two very senior officials have been suspended over corruption allegations. Under the cover of secrecy, they may have their say; and anything fewer than 160 votes in an uncontested election would be disastrous for Blatter.
Governments
The British sports minister, Hugh Robertson, and his federal Australian counterpart, Mark Arbib, have both called publicly on Fifa to reform. Robertson described the presidential election as "a farce" and "a complete nonsense", while Arbib said countries should no longer spend money bidding to host the World Cup unless Fifa cleaned up its rules governing the process. However, the pressure from politicians around the world has been limited.
Robertson and Arbib both referred to the modernisation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which followed the 1999 bribes-for-votes scandal over Salt Lake City's Winter Olympics bid. And Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, addressed Fifa's congress on Tuesday, urging Fifa, politely, to do the same, saying: "The IOC emerged a stronger organisation, from within. I am sure Fifa can emerge stronger – and from within."
So far, though, there is no unified pressure from governments of the world for Fifa to reform or for Blatter to make way for a figure of stature who will usher in modernisation.
The media
Britain's media has done much to expose the civil war at Fifa and its corruption scandals, and the storm has had some impact. Blatter has belatedly accepted Fifa has an image problem, which has, in turn, concerned the sponsors. The media has exposed and covered the scandals with growing outrage, beginning in November when two executive committee members, Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti, were suspended after allegedly asking a Sunday Times undercover reporter for money in return for World Cup votes.
The furthersuspensions of Warner and Bin Hammam at the weekend, followed by Warner's own allegations against Blatter, of which the president was cleared by Fifa's ethics committee, has been a huge story worldwide, although notably more so in the Anglophone press. The French sports newspaper, L'Equipe, and its Italian counterpart, La Gazzetta dello Sport, have relegated the story deep within their inside pages.
The onslaught has shaken Blatter's previously impermeable belief in his own invulnerability, with the president accepting on Monday: "I regret what has happened – great damage to the image of Fifa and a lot of disappointment to football fans."
But his performance before the massed journalists at Fifa's Zurich headquarters also seethed with barely suppressed resentment. He called for "respect," even "elegance" in the journalists' questioning. It will take more than media pressure to unseat this president.