If Sepp Blatter is re-elected it will underscore the culture gap between Europe and the developing world. FIFA pours big money into developing countries to support football infrastructure which helps to develop backward economies and give their populations hope and motivation. If you are a delegate from parts of the world which are at a marked disadvantage to and exploited by the prosperous West, you may consider a few sweeteners a small price to pay for all that this old man has brought to your country.
UEFA should stay in, no matter what the outcome. From within it can, with all its constituent national football associations and crime agencies, ensure that in future FIFA respects the law of honesty and fair dealing. It is also important to ask, as the reports and evidence of corruption are so widespread and of long standing, why it is that no European country has had its crime agencies carry out any kind of formal investigation as to what is happening within their own borders involving FIFA. That needs to change too. Behavioral patterns are hard to shift but when large numbers of FIFA officials dare not fly anywhere without fear of arrest on landing, those patterns will change to a more acceptable format.