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Sepp Blatter Is Defiant on Eve of Election

Related Topics: FIFA, Friday, Ali, Association football

ZURICH — Soccer’s world governing body will hold a presidential election Friday, two days after a group of its leading officials were charged with corruption, its headquarters were raided and the governments of two countries announced they were investigating more allegations of bribery.

But when the voting members of FIFA cast their ballots on Friday, it most likely will be as if nothing had happened this week. Sepp Blatter, the publicly embattled leader seeking a fifth term as FIFA’s president, shows no signs of political damage. Despite a new round of allegations of widespread bribery implicating some of his top lieutenants, 11 of whom have been provisionally suspended from soccer, Mr.