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
England 2006 FIFA World Cup bid decided to make their own bid, losing the support of UEFA president Lennart Johansson in the process. As a result, England put its support behind Sepp Blatter in 1998, rather than rival Johansson, for the FIFA presidency. Blatter had, however, already publicly supported South Africa's bid. The FA went on to make a series of misinformed decisions to the detriment of the bid. This including FA chief executive Graham Kelly and chairman Keith Wiseman unsuccessfully attempting to remove the Scottish Football Association's David Will from the FIFA executive and replace him with Wiseman, culminating in both Kelly and Wiseman being