There have been eight FIFA presidents since world soccer's governing body was founded in 1904 and only two in the last 40 years: Brazilian Joao Havelange and Swiss Sepp Blatter. A look at the presidential elections from 1974: 1974: Joao Havelange defeated Stanley Rous at the FIFA Congress in June 1974 to become the seventh president of FIFA and the first from outside Europe. Havelange, who had travelled the world in the three years leading up to the Congress and promised funding and World Cup places to Asian and African countries, totally outflanked the Englishman to defeat Rous by 68-52 votes on a second ballot to become president. 1998: Havelange's presidency was never challenged during his 24 years in office. He eventually retired at the age of 82 in 1998. Two men ran for the right to succeed him - FIFA's secretary general Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Lennart Johansson. A fierce election campaign began just four months before voting was due to take place at FIFA's 51st Congress in Paris but with many predicting a close-run battle, Blatter polled 111 votes, Johansson 80 with the Swede conceding defeat before a second ballot was held. 2002: Blatter was challenged for the presidency in 2002 by Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, the president of the African confederation (CAF). Shortly before the election Blatter was the subject of a formal legal complaint from 11 FIFA executive committee colleagues who accused him of an abuse of power and financial mismanagement. In one of the darkest periods in FIFA's history, then secretary General Michel Zen-Ruffinen handed a document to Swiss prosecutors on behalf of the 11, alleging wrong-doing at the highest level. Blatter survived that and won the presidential vote, heavily defeating Hayatou by 139-56 votes at the Congress in Seoul. 2007: Blatter was re-elected unchallenged at the FIFA Congress in Zurich. 2011: Blatter was challenged for the presidency by Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam, the president of the Asian confederation (AFC) who had helped and supported Blatter in his campaign against Hayatou in 2002. Bin Hammam had declared his candidacy in March 2011, but a week before the election at the Congress in Zurich, he was accused of offering bribes for votes and withdrew his candidature, leaving Blatter to be re-elected unopposed. Blatter gained 186 votes from the 203 members present while Bin Hammam was subsequently banned from football for life. 2015:Sepp Blatter was re-elected president of FIFA for a fifth term on Friday after the only other candidate conceded defeat after a first round of voting in an election overshadowed by allegations of corruption in world soccer. Blatter's victory came despite demands that he quit in the face of a major bribery scandal being investigated by U.S., Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that plunged the world soccer body into the worst crisis in its 111-year history. Neither Blatter nor Jordanian challenger Prince Ali bin Al Hussein got the necessary two thirds of the vote in the first round, with Blatter on 133 and Prince Ali on 73. Prince Ali later conceded. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/131489.aspx
