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
Sepp Blatter mandate from the entire world of football—the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe, and love football as much as we all do at FIFA". Subsequently, on 26 June Blatter prompted speculation that he might be preparing to renege on this resignation, when he was quoted as saying that "I have not resigned, I put my mandate in the hands of an extraordinary congress". This seemed to contradict his comments from 2 June 2015. He was further quoted as saying that he resigned "to take away the pressure from FIFA and my employees, including [pressure] from the