51st FIFA Congress and president of the European football governing body UEFA Lennart Johansson considered the favourite to win. Johansson's rival was the Swiss-German football executive Joseph "Sepp" Blatter who had previously been an executive at the Swiss watch manufactures Longines and had served as the general secretary of FIFA since 1981. The first round of voting in the election did not produce a clear victor, with Blatter receiving 111 votes to Johansson's 80, but Johansson conceded victory. 51st FIFA Congress The 51st FIFA Congress was held between 6 and 8 June 1998, at the Equinox congress hall in Paris, France, just before
2015 FIFA corruption case certain transactions at FIFA including, but not limited to its president Sepp Blatter". Claiming further that he feared for his life, he declared, "(N)ot even death will stop the avalanche that is coming. The die is cast. There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall." l The existence of a U.S. federal investigation and grand jury based in Brooklyn was first made public in November 2014 by The New York Daily News. On 27 May 2015, during the FIFA annual meeting at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, authorities charged 14 officials, including nine