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
2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids did not support the bid. On 19 March 2010, FIFA rejected Indonesia's bid to host the 2022 World Cup because the government stated that their concern is for the people of the country and so could not support the bid as FIFA requested. As a consequence, PSSI threw their support behind Australia's bid for the 2022 tournament. Former Mexican Football Federation President, Alberto de la Torre, announced their intention to bid for the cup in 2005, but was ineligible because of the rotation policy at that time. On 2 December 2010, FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced the winning bids at