FIFA election: How Sepp Blatter keeps hold of power, despite it all

They are expecting the results of the FIFA presidential vote to arrive about 4pm this afternoon, UK time. hough this being FIFA it is pretty safe to suggest they already know who has won.

Standing outside the annual congress yesterday, watching the delegates arrive by the limo-load, it was easy to see precisely why it is that Sepp Blatter will once again be swept triumphantly into office. Never mind that he has presided for 17 years over a deteriorating culture of rot and sleaze, never mind that he has turned the body into an international laughing stock, never mind that his continuing presence will result in the worldwide vilification of football and all it stands for, they will be voting en masse for Blatter. They need him as much as he needs them.

You have to remember this about the majority of the delegates at the congress. They are not there to enhance the wellbeing of the sport. They are not there to promote the good of the game. They are there to protect their own positions, to ensure that they can continue to insert their noses in the trough, that they can carry on riding in their vast black limos, carry on staying in five star hotels, carry on charging hefty expenses every time they clean their own teeth. And to do all that, they need Blatter. It is under his absurdly corrupt offices that they have thrived. They owe it all to him.

Watching them go in - sleek, wobbly of jowl, exclusively male, overwhelmingly middle aged – was to see men who have a debt to Blatter that requires a four-yearly pay back. What Blatter has done to shore up his position is to engage in straight forward pork barrel politics: like the Democrats of Tammany Hall in 19th century New York, he has delivered rewards in exchange for loyalty. He has expanded FIFA to the point where it now has 16 more members than the United Nations.

Each of these tiny states has the same voting power as the established nations. Monserrat has the same power in the congress as Brazil. And Blatter has been assiduous in ensuring that each of the tiniest is well looked after. Grants, funds, expenses pour out from Zurich. Not to promote or evangelise football. But to shore up his vote. And while he has done so, he has turned a blind eye to his allies using FIFA as a route to personal enrichment.

It is inconceivable that a man as corrosive to his organisation’s brand image as Blatter could survive as its head in any other walk of life. Even a bank might baulk at having him in its chair. A month or so ago I was in Brazil, doing a piece about the preparations for Rio 2016, 500 days before it begins. I was speaking to an official of the organising committee and I asked her how come there had been none of the riots and street demonstrations ahead of the Olympics that swept across Brazil in the year before the World Cup. Her reply was revealing.

“You cannot overstate how much FIFA is hated in this country,” she told me. “Blatter became the focus of all the political frustrations that had been building up for a generation. Whereas no-one regards the IOC as an enemy. In fact, most people don’t have an opinion on the IOC”.

So that is what Blatter has done: turn his body into an internationally recognised symbol of corruption and oppression. Yet still they will vote for him.

For sure there are a few voices raised against him. Though we should take Michel Platini’s sudden conversion with a pinch of salt. This is not the UEFA president suddenly acting on principle. He has known precisely what sort of body Blatter leads. He has engaged at close quarters with him and his way of doing business. He has copied many of the Blatter ways in UEFA. It is only the intervention of the FBI that has made him speak out. He is not taking a moral stand here. He is merely being pragmatic.

But even his intervention will not be enough. As for the FA– whose kowtowing to FIFA in the pathetic attempt to win the 2018 World Cup was nauseating to behold, not least its craven description of journalistic exposure of FIFA corruption as “unhelpful” – the English have no more sway than Easter Island. And the delegate from Easter Island has a lot to be grateful to Sepp for.

This is how Blatter has remained in power despite the tsunami of evidence piling up against him. And this is how he will remain in control. Not through violence, threat or coercion. But through the careful application of generous expenses. By ensuring no one questions the private jet fees and lengthy stays in five-star accommodation. And the deft turning of blind eye to industrial scale graft and corruption.

Sure the arrival on the scene of the FBI is not going to make life as easy as it was in septic Seppland. But things are not about to change. They never will with the ultimate crook in charge. And the depressing thought is these people are the public face across the globe of the game we love. It is enough to make you weep.