New Zealand Football backs FIFA president Sepp Blatter to serve fifth term in power

New Zealand Football and all 10 other Oceania Football bodies will vote to give embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter another four years in power.

This afternoon the Oceania Football Confederation issued a press release following its annual congress – announcing confederation boss David Chung has walked to another term unopposed, and, that "a resolution unanimously supporting FIFA president Joseph S Blatter in his bid for re-election was supported by a letter signed by all 11 OFC member associations."

Blatter, 78, had vowed that his fourth term as FIFA boss would be his last, only to change his mind and seek a fifth term in the wake of continued allegations of corruption inside world football.

The pressure on Blatter, and on FIFA to reform, has increased to new levels with outrage over the handling of a report into alleged vote-buying for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. 

Investigator Michael Garcia resigned after saying the report he wrote was misrepresented by FIFA, while FIFA says it will now release a version of the actual report.

Chung was described as being "both ecstatic and humbled" at retaining his position as OFC boss for another four years and expressed support for Blatter's fifth term as world football boss.

"The next four years will be an exciting period for the OFC and I am sincerely thankful to the member associations of OFC for putting your trust in me as your president," Chung said during his acceptance speech.

"I would like to take the time to congratulate those members elected to the OFC executive committee and I look forward to working with you in this next term and will rely on your expertise and experience to help guide OFC in the right direction.

Chung, 53, acknowledged the continued support for Blatter and helping OFC make grounds in developing the game throughout the region courtesy of the various FIFA development initiatives provided over the past four years.

Chung noted that while some member associations are not officially represented on the executive committee, he is committed to running a transparent organisation and therefore invites those non-elected members to attend meetings as observers.

"We need to be united, transparent and make collective decisions for the good of OFC," he said.

"You must know that OFC is not an independent organisation, it belongs to you the members and our vision for the next four years is for the benefit of the members and you our stakeholders; your clubs, players, coaches, referees and administrators."

Working on his vision for the next four years, Chung outlined three points which his administration will focus on.

"We will continue to grow the game through Development Programmes and to popularise football in the region through television, radio and new competitions, continue to create pathways for our elite players and teams and strive to create revenue and become financially sustainable so we can reinvest in growing the game and creating pathways for our elite players and teams."

With his re-election as president, David Chung also becomes a FIFA vice-president with immediate effect. He will be officially presented to the Congress of FIFA on the 1st of June.

The OFC Executive Committee sees just one new member join the newly elected group. American Samoa's Iuli Alex Godinet makes up the committee alongside Lee Harmon (Cook Islands), Rajesh Patel (Fiji), Laupama Solomona (Samoa), Barnabas Anga (Soloman Islands) and Lambert Maltock (Vanuatu).

Other matters addressed during the OFC Congress saw the unanimous endorsement of the 11 Point Plan to Combat Match Fixing, which was adopted by the Executive Committee in November 2014.