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
Battle of Nuremberg (2006 FIFA World Cup) Deco, and Van Bronckhorst were sitting together on the sidelines after being sent off, the latter two having a discussion, both being teammates at FC Barcelona. Commentator Gary Bloom referred to the scene as the "Bad boys' corner". In the aftermath of the match, referee Ivanov was criticised by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who suggested that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance during the match. Blatter later regretted these words and promised to apologise officially. When Portugal faced England in the subsequent quarter-final, they were without the suspended Deco and Costinha. Portugal managed to