ZURICH: FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Tuesday he is confident of securing a new term as head of world football and slammed what he called the “negative influences” that he said threaten the game.

The 79-year-old head of sport’s most powerful federation is favourite to secure a fifth term in a vote on Friday but has faced an unprecedented challenge from FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin al-Hussein while European football leaders have stepped up their criticism of the Swiss leader.

Blatter said “I am confident” as he entered a meeting of the CONCACAF confederation which comprises north and central American countries and the Caribbean islands.

CONCACAF makes up 35 of the 209 federations that will vote on Friday and the president traditionally addresses the pre-congress meeting of each regional confederation.

The FIFA leader has faced renewed calls for change from Prince Ali of Jordan and UEFA president Michel Platini in the run up to the vote.

Other challengers who have withdrawn from the race have also hit out at Blatter’s tactics. Former Portugal great Luis Figo, who backed out last week to support Prince Ali, said the vote would give Blatter “absolute power” for another four years.

Former world player of the year Figo, 42, said Blatter was a dictator and the election was nothing more than a plebiscite, meaning it was not a fair and open contest.

“Luis Figo is free to say what he wants to say. He is a free man, he is a footballer,” said Blatter. “I have received so many titles but I still have the title of FIFA president at least until six o’clock on Friday.”

Blatter is likely to have the title a lot earlier on Friday as the vote is expected in the middle of the afternoon.

In an excerpt of a column he has written for the FIFA Weekly magazine, Blatter called on all federations to “to safeguard the interests of football and protect the game from negative influences”.

The short extract did not say what the “negative influences” are but the FIFA has increasingly railed against match-fixing and racism in the game in recent months. The full column will be released on Thursday.

PRINCE ALI ‘OFFERED’ VOTES

Prince Ali’s election team, meanwhile, said on Tuesday it rejected a potentially illegal offer to help him oust Blatter and informed law enforcement agencies about the approach.

The challenger’s campaign said it was approached by an individual who offered details on Blatter’s finances and claimed to be able to help deliver dozens of votes in the head-to-head contest for the FIFA presidency.

It did not identify the individual, although the campaign said he was a third party, who was not part of FIFA nor connected to any national football association.

The matter was referred to Quest, a UK-based corporate intelligence firm, who were asked to contact the police and the offer was rejected. FIFA’s ethics committee, however, was not informed.

“Our goal was not to create a campaign issue but to properly react to an approach made to us that appeared to involve criminal activity,” Prince Ali’s campaign said in a statement. “The campaign did not want to do anything that could jeopardise the police investigation.”

Because the claims made by the individual strongly suggested criminal acts, Quest referred the matter to the proper law enforcement authorities.

Quest said it has been working for the prince’s campaign in order to guard “against any threats to the integrity of the election process ... or campaign dirty tricks”.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2015

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