The man sitting at the helm of world governing football was using the Congress as an opportunity to all-but indicate his plan to run again as FIFA President, despite calls by some of Europe's top sports figures to resign from the post amid the ongoing corruption and bribery scandals that have tainted the organisation.

With barely a mention of the Qatar World Cup corruption scandals, the 78-year-old rebuked the criticisms made by English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke, alongside the head of the Dutch FA Michael van Praag and UEFA Executive Committee member David Gill, expressing his anger at their "disrespectful comments".

"I have had to accept a number of blows but what I saw and heard at the UEFA meeting was the most disrespectful thing I have experienced in my entire life, on the football pitch and in my home," he said.

Ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which starts tomorrow, Blatter gave another clear indication that he feels he is the right man to drive forward FIFA's reform process, even though his critics insist it has not gone nearly far enough.

"My mission is not finished," he told the 209 members of the Congress.

"Congress, you will decide who will take this great institution forward, but I can tell you I am ready to accompany you in the future."

Sepp Blatter has all-but indicated his intentions to run for a fifth term as President during the FIFA Congress in São Paulo today ©Getty Images



Even with his critics within Europe, Blatter, who has been at the helm of FIFA since 1998, enjoys the support of many within the governing body with delegates from Africa, Asia and Oceania publically stating their support for the incumbent President.

His cause was also helped by the overwhelming decision to reject proposals for age limits and term of office limits.

With the electronic voting system broken, a show of red cards made clear the feelings of a majority of delegates in the two votes, with around 40 of the 209 members voting for the proposed reforms to FIFA's governance.

Following the vote, Blatter said bluntly: "We don't speak any longer about age limits in FIFA."

His one rival to date, despite questions over his continued running should Blatter formally indicate his re-election campaign, is Frenchman Jérôme Champagne who announced his candidacy for the top job in January.

Following the FIFA Congress, Champagne released a statement stating he was looking forward to an open debate about the issues facing the game ahead of the vote.

"For the past years and in particular since I declared my candidacy on January 20, 2014 in London, I have been defending the need of a genuine, respectful and fair-play debate on all issues affecting FIFA and football in this 21st century," it read.

"No one should fear this open discussion in front of the people of football, which would honour those organising and conducting it.

"As a consequence, I am very much looking forward to the debate in front of us, a debate even more necessary after the events having unfolded in the past weeks."

Michael Garcia gave his highly anticipated speech to the FIFA Congress regarding his investigations into the World Cup bid corruption scandals ©AFP/Getty Images



After a highly anticipated build up, FIFA investigator Michael Garcia also spoke at the Congress, stating he had already reviewed the majority of the files obtained by The Sunday Times as part of his long-running examination of the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid.

Over the last two weeks the British newspaper has published scathing reports on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups bids based on a huge leak of secret emails and documents.

Even with the publication of this latest evidence, Garcia said he would not extend the date of his investigation beyond June 9, leading to fears the evidence, which claimed former Qatari football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam helped secure the 2022 World Cup for the Gulf state through secret deals and favours, would not be taken into account.

But Garcia told FIFA's Congress that "no-one should assume what information we have or do not have".

He added: "The vast majority of that material has been available for us for some time, long before the recent wave of media reports.

"We have gone to what appears to us to be the original source of that data and we are confident that we will have full access to whatever else may be in that data set and we will review that data for anything else relevant prior to issuing any final report."

The American lawyer is expected to hand over his report to the FIFA Ethics Committee's adjudicatory chamber in the next six weeks.

Blatter said last week that he expected a summary of Garcia's findings to be made public in the autumn.

Jérôme Valcke informed the FIFA congress that all 12 host stadiums were now ready for teams, fans and officials following months of delays ©Getty Images



FIFA's secretary general Jérôme Valcke also spoke during the Congress, confirming for the first time in public that all 12 host stadiums are ready for teams, fans and officials, following months of delays.

FIFA's finance chairman Julio Grondona then took to the stage and said world football's governing body had a $72 million (£42.77 million/€53.19 million) surplus last year, increasing its reserves to $1.432 billion (£850 million/€1.06 billion).

This surplus came through revenues of $1.386 billion (£820 million/€1.02 billion), $1.22 billion (£720 million/€900 million) of which was event-related revenue, with broadcast rights for the 2014 World Cup accounting for a lion's share of that income at $601 million (£357.16 million/€443.95 million).

The second-biggest source of income was the sale of marketing rights worth $413 million (£245.42 million/€305.08 million), of which the World Cup accounted for $404 million (£240.07 million/€298.37 million)

In terms of expenditure, the total $1.314 billion (£780 million/€970 million) was spread across event-related expenses, development-related expenses, other operating expenses, football governance, exploitation of rights, and financial expenses.

A huge sum of this bill went towards preparations and costs for the 2014 World Cup, with $560 million (£332.68 million/€413.56 million) spent.

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