SEOUL, May 29: FIFA president Sepp Blatter swept to a stunning election victory and a second four-year term on Wednesday, after a bruising campaign that exposed deep rifts within world soccer’s governing body over his leadership.

Blatter, accused of plunging FIFA into financial crisis, defeated Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou by 139 votes to 56 in a secret ballot of its national associations in South Korea’s capital Seoul, two days before the start of the World Cup finals.

“Today was victory for the truth,” Blatter, a 66-year-old Swiss, told a news conference after the vote at FIFA’s 53rd ordinary congress in Seoul.

With 197 votes cast and two spoilt ballot papers, Blatter overcame serious allegations of mismanagement to win by a huge majority of 83 votes — far more than when he first won election to world soccer’s top job in 1998.

Blatter’s victory leaves his political opponents utterly devastated as he also has a majority of his supporters in the newly constituted executive committee, which will convene for business later in the year.

Blatter, magnanimous in victory, described his 55-year-old rival as an honourable opponent who fought the often bitter campaign “like a true gentleman”.

But he struggled to keep his feelings in check during an emotional victory address.

“The people of football do not lie,” he told delegates in French and Spanish.

Blatter then urged all the delegates to hold hands for the unity of football. “Do it, do it,” he urged them.

He then took the hand of his estranged general secretary, Michel Zen-Ruffinen, FIFA’s most senior non-elected official, who authored a report against his management style.

But the public show of unity is unlikely to last much longer than the end of the World Cup, which kicks off on Friday when champions France start the defence of their title against Senegal in Seoul.

Zen-Ruffinen’s report, handed to the executive committee on May 3, alleged that Blatter could have committed criminal acts under the Swiss penal code for the way he had managed FIFA over the last four years.

The report is now with the prosecutor in Zurich, who may yet instigate criminal charges against Blatter by the end of the year.—Reuters