Blatter set for Fifa election win despite corruption scandal

The 79-year-old Swiss is expected to be re-elected as president of the world game's administrators on Friday in what has been a hectic week for the sport.Sepp Blatter is expected to be re-elected for a fifth term as Fifa president on Friday against a backdrop of chaos within world football’s governing body.Blatter is up against Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan in the first contested election for the post since 2002, with the Swiss 79-year-old the clear favourite to be voted in.The poll is going ahead as originally planned despite a week of controversy at Fifa, with two separate investigations having hit the headlines on Wednesday.
The United States Department of Justice launched a 47-count indictment against 14 people – including nine former and current senior football figures relating to racketeering, fraud and money laundering hours after a 6am raid on a Swiss hotel housing several Fifa officials had seen seven men arrested .Also on Wednesday, the Swiss Office of the Attorney General announced that criminal proceedings had been opened against unknown persons in relation to the bidding process for the controversial World Cups in Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022 respectively .Uefa has called for Blatter to stand down due to Fifa "killing football" , despite insistences from the sport's governing body that the president should not be held responsible from the allegedly corrupt actions of dozens of his colleagues.English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has told the BBC that he believes things will get worse for Blatter, even if he wins the election.I hope he doesn’t win but if he does I think the events of this week have turned him into a diminished figure and I can’t see him lasting more than a year or two, he said.Mr Blatter’s statement yesterday in which he basically said ‘Leave it to me, I will clean it up’ - nobody is going to believe that. And I think it is quite ominous for him when the attorney general in America says this is only the beginning, not the end.Despite all of this, though, Blatter is expected to be elected again. Friday's vote will take place as a secret ballot, with heads of all 209 Fifa nations being eligible to vote. If either candidate gains 139 votes in the first round, they will be declared the winner.Should neither reach that figure, a second vote will take place in which a majority of any kind will be enough for victory.The winner will not face the media on Friday, with the official press conference having been delayed until Saturday.Blatter has been Fifa president since 1998, having succeeded Joao Havelange who had been in place since 1974.