ZURICH — Sepp Blatter fell just short of re-election as FIFA’s president on the first ballot on Friday.
Mr. Blatter got 133 votes, short of the two-thirds majority required. His challenger, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, got 73 votes in a ballot of FIFA’s member federations here.
A second ballot was to be taken, also on Friday, with only a simple majority required. Mr. Blatter was heavily favored to win.
The announcement came after a prolonged voting period in which a member of each delegation was called to the front of the arena in alphabetical order by delegation to cast a ballot in one of two boxy white voting booths.