"We congratulate President Blatter," Gulati added, "and it is our hope that he will make reform his number one priority to ensure the integrity of the sport across the world."
In the first round of voting Blatter won 133 votes, while Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan — his only challenger in the race — gained support of 73 members. Prince Ali later withdrew from the race.
Blatter — who has now won his fourth election to the post — has been FIFA's president since 1998, and will now begin another 4-year term.
— Sam Laird (@samcmlaird) May 29, 2015
While some have questioned why these charges against soccer's governing association are coming from the United States — not traditionally a soccer-heavy nation — the US government has maintained that it is not trying to interfere in the internal politics of the organization or to influence the location of the 2018 World Cup — awarded to Russia in 2010.
US Department of State spokesperson Jeff Rathke denied Thursday that the charges brought by the US Department of Justice "don’t have anything to do with that topic."
"The suggestion that we are trying to have an influence over the internal processes in FIFA, that’s not the point," Rathke said.
Nevertheless, some see the timing of the arrests, the day before the FIFA Congress began, as indicative of a US desire to interfere and prevent Blatter's re-election.
"The request of staying of the elections, if it is not a direct breach or a violation to FIFA’s principles, surely it is an unauthorized influence and interference inside an ongoing process. Indeed, the operation at stake demonstrates again the ‘American way’ to deal with international issues," Lucio Colantuoni and Venturi Ferriolo, prominent international sports lawyers, the director and a member of Italy’s Centro Studi Diritto Sport and Sports Law Research Center respectively, told Sputnik.
Corruption — 1, Football — 0
If the United States was trying to prevent Blatter's re-election, it all came to naught.
The US, though, isn't the only party "disappointed" by Blatter's re-election; many are taking to Twitter to vent their frustrations with the lack of change in FIFA's highest office, convinced that Blatter has to be somewhat to blame for the organization's corruption.
— Bryan Schouten (@BryanSchouten) May 29, 2015
— Meredith Frost (@MeredithFrost) May 29, 2015
— Ellen de Leeuw (@ellendeleeuw) May 29, 2015
— Daenerys Targaryen (@GoT_Dany) May 29, 2015
— Chris (@eat_sleep_film) May 29, 2015
— Shawn Francis (@TheOffsideRules) May 29, 2015
