Nassau, Bahamas - Hailed as “the father of football” and compared to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela, Fifa chief Sepp Blatter got backing from across Caribbean and Central American countries at the CONCACAF congress on Thursday.
Blatter received pledges of support from 10 federations as the congress quickly turned from a business meeting into a rally to support the incumbent president of soccer's world governing body.
The Trinidad and Tobago FA chief Raymond Tim Kee praised Blatter as the “father of football” while the president of the Dominican Republic federation Osiris Guzman compared the 79-year-old Swiss to Moses, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King Jr as well as Jesus and Mandela.
Guzman was suspended by Fifa in 2011 for 30 days and fined following an Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations surrounding the cash for votes scandal at the last Fifa presidential election.
There were no speeches in favour of any of the opposing candidates - former Portugal international Luis Figo, Dutch FA chief Michael van Praag and Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein all of whom were present as observers.
“I think CONCACAF membership is sending a clear message that we continue to support president Blatter,” said CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, who was later re-elected, unopposed, as head of his body.
Figo was unhappy with the way the congress proceeded.
“When some speak and others are silenced, democracy and football lose. Elections are, per definition, a democratic process. Otherwise they are not elections,” Figo told Reuters.
The heads of football federations from Jamaica, Haiti, Turks and Caicos, Cuba, Panama, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Puerto Rico also expressed their support for Blatter.
On Thursday Gordon Derrick, president of the Caribbean Football Union, said there would be no block vote from the region but some speakers called for the return of that practice.
The speeches came during a time put aside for the formal approval of minutes from the previous congress and appeared to be well choreographed.
“President Blatter has been playing on our team for the first half and as coaches of that team we are not going to take him out of the game. We ask congress to let him play the second half,” said a Cuban delegate.
“Loud and clear” replied Webb.
Despite the eulogies to Blatter, opposition candidates said that behind the scenes they had picked up support.
“We knew in advance there was support for Mr Blatter in this region,” Van Praag told Reuters. “I know from my meetings that there also countries in CONCACAF that want a change, they are sure of that and they are not going to vote for Mr Blatter.”
Reuters