Blatter and Prince Ali Face Off in FIFA Presidential Vote in Live Video Stream

The FIFA congress is streamed live and the FIFA Presidential election is scheduled for this afternoon. A live video stream is available to follow the proceedings.

This the most exciting election of the FIFA President in years. Today 79-year-old Sepp Blatter hopes to get re-elected despite arrests of 7 FIFA officials this week on corruption charges. Earlier today Sepp Blatter pushed away all responsibility for this scandal. He feels not responsible and not able to monitor all FIFA members.

“Events have thrown a shadow across Fifa and congress. Let’s try to lift that shadow,” Sepp Blatter said.

There was already some excitement in the morning session of the congress. Two Palestinian women stormed the conference to call for excluding Israel from FIFA. Security removed them and the congress continued.

Yesterday UEFA President Michel Platini asked Blatter to resign, but he refused. This afternoon the 209 FIFA members have the power in their hands to end Blatter’s reign. 39-year-old Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan is the alternative. 

Sepp Blatter and Prince Ali will address the FIFA officials in a 15 minute speech before they can cast their secret vote. In the first round of voting a candidate needs to get at least 140 votes to win. If not then there is a second round of voting where a simple majority decides.

It is very unlikely that Prince Ali will win as Blatter has strong support from many groups in the FIFA. Only the European UEFA members have so far said that they will vote for Prince Ali. UEFA only has about 40 delegates.

The live stream of the 65th FIFA congress will continue at 2pm CET. The live video feed can be found on Youtube

This just in. Local Swiss press reports that police have confirmed that a bomb threat has been made at the FIFA Congress. This happened at before noon. It is not clear at this point if this will have any impact on the FIFA Congress schedule.