SEPP BLATTER will remain president of football governing body FIFA after he was re-elected unopposed today amid widespread allegations of corruption in the organisation.
Blatter received 186 of the 203 votes (91.6%) at the 61st FIFA Congress in Zurich after the failure of a late joint attempt by the Football Association and Scottish Football Association to have the election postponed.
As promised, the FA abstained and the English were joined by the Scots but, disappointingly, support from elsewhere was largely not forthcoming. Disappointing but hardly unexpected.
It seems that turkeys will vote for Christmas before the majority of the FIFA Congress members will vote to change an organisation which seems rotten to the core.
Make no question about it, though - the boat has been rocked.
A delusional Blatter had denied there was nothing to investigate nor any sort of crisis at FIFA when speaking to journalists at a press conference yesterday.
But, later, in his opening speech to the Congress, he admitted: "Our ship is in troubled waters and I am the captain weathering the storm. This is a difficult period for FIFA and I admit that readily.
"Not only is the pyramid shaking but our ship has drawn some water,"
However, the problem is that based upon overnight events, FIFA is going completely the wrong way about sorting out their mess.
For, just last night, interim Concacaf president Lisle Austin made a botched attempt to sack Concacaf general secretary Chuck Blazer, the man who accused Jack Warner and former presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam of bribery.
The executive committee of Concacaf, the North American federation, ruled that the move by Austin, who is in his position at the federation in place of Warner, was "unauthorised".
And so, as it stands, Mr Blazer has retained his job... but then so has Blatter, for a fourth term, as well.
Over the past 13 years, the 75-year-old Swiss has overseen numerous crises from his offices in Zurich.
They include the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL) in 2001 amid accusations that the company paid £66m of bribes to football's governing body.
Then there were the unwelcome comments about women's football in 2004 and the refusal to consider the introduction of goal-line technology in the run-up to World Cup 2010.
Now there is the latest round of accusations about the bribing of FIFA officials in the lead up to the votes on the World Cups in 2018 and 2022 - first by former FA chairman Lord Triesman and now by Mr Blazer.
Blatter has survived before against the odds and his latest trick was to pour whitewash over the allegations made by Lord Triesman.
On Sunday, the accused quartet - Warner, Nicolas Leoz, Ricardo Teixeira and Worawi Makudi - were all exonerated of any wrongdoing.
However, FIFA's investigation of itself was hardly the independent inquiry of these men that remains much needed.
Indeed, the fact that Blatter's only previous opponent for this election, Bin Hammam, is one of the suspended members - and that Blatter ended up being re-elected unopposed for a second time in a row - demonstrates clearly how deep FIFA is in the mire.
At least one positive thing to emerge from this whole mess is the discovery by the FA of a backbone.
It was not always thus. When there was still a chance of their 2018 bid succeeding, bid chief executive Andy Anson attacked the BBC for being "unpatriotic" after Panorama analysed FIFA bribes.
Sadly, Mr Anson did not seem to appreciate that, while the BBC is indeed this country's main public service broadcaster, it is not there to turn a blind eye to stories of legitimate journalistic value simply because they do not fit an accepted narrative.
Even now, the FA faces criticism of having acted too late and making only a token gesture to delay the presidential vote.
In fairness to current FA chairman David Bernstein, though, I would guess even he did not expect this extraordinary situation to unravel so quickly.
But, despite losing the battle to keep Blatter out of power in the auditorium today, the FA cannot resign itself to sitting back idly as it has done before.
Surely the time has come to attempt a break-away from the clutches of an organisation which has for a long time clearly been a busted flush.
It will not be easy as Blatter retains the support of the vast majority of smaller countries in FIFA including Northern Ireland and Wales.
They are pleased with him for the redistribution of funds, regardless of whether or not this is dirty money.
However, if the oldest associations in football in England and Scotland can attract some other big hitters - and, perhaps most importantly for sponsor reasons, the United States - then it could work.
Isolationism is rarely the answer to problems such as this but it is fair to say that FIFA seems blind to its issues and nothing more can be done internally.
The big associations should not be scared of taking on FIFA by resigning their positions. At the moment, their votes hold no more weight than those of San Marino or Tonga.
But, by stepping away from FIFA, they would fast gain the support of the already-worried sponsors such as Adidas, Coca-Cola and Emirates.
Ultimately, given Blatter's dictatorial power at FIFA, it is a faint hope - but it is the only one which is worth holding on to, for now.
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