Sepp Blatter, Prince Ali slug it out in FIFA presidential poll

Zurich, May 29: Undeterred by a corruption scandal that has already implicated nine of its senior officials, world football governing body FIFA was on Friday set to elect its new chief — with incumbent Sepp Blatter seeking a fifth term challenged by Jordanian heavyweight Prince Ali bin al-Hussein.The 65th FIFA Congress, underway here with 209 member associations in attendance, will elect the new FIFA president under the shadow of a murky marketing and sponsorship scandal involving as many as two FIFA vice presidents and seven executive committee members.
Before the voting begins, each candidate has the opportunity to speak to FIFA members for 15 minutes. Each of FIFA’s 209 member associations gets one vote, so the likes of footballing minnows — like Trinidad & Tobago and Finland — have as much say as the soccer heavyweights — like Spain, Brazil and the Football Association of England.
It is a paper vote where member associations will be casting their votes by secret ballot, in alphabetical order. In the first round, a candidate needs to get two-thirds of the vote to be declared the winner. If the vote is closer than that, a second round of voting is held, with a simple majority enough to secure victory.FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, assisted by a number of scrutineers, will control the distribution and counting of ballot papers. The battle was initially a four-cornered contest but former Portugal star midfielder Luis Figo, 42, and Royal Dutch Football Association president Michael van Praag, 67, pulled out of the race because they did not want to split the anti-Blatter vote. Blatter has been at the FIFA helm since 1998 and earned quite a few enemies in the last 18 years.