AT an age when most people are looking forward to a future that contains nothing more strenuous than a spot of gardening, Sepp Blatter is relishing another four stressful years as the most powerful man in world football.

The 66-year-old has the future of the global game in his hands after he was re-elected as FIFA president yesterday - but Blatter's celebrations remain overshadowed by a welter of allegations and financial problems.

FA chief executive Adam Crozier made clear his displeasure with Blatter during this week's FIFA Congress in Seoul, where the Swiss lawyer shamelessly stage-managed a question-and-answer session with election rival Issa Hayatou of Cameroon.

So stage-managed was the event, in fact, that Hayatou was unable to state his case.

Remarkably, Blatter was booed from the stage by a gathering of footballing big-wigs among whom polite applause is normally the order of the day.

Despite this unprecedented show of antipathy, Blatter beat Hayatou by 139 votes to 56 yesterday. It was a resounding victory for the man who replaced Joao Havelange four years ago - but in soccer parlance, the scoreline flattered him. As the delegates cast their votes for Blatter, they might as well have said: "Better the devil we know than the devil we don't."

Certainly, Hayatou was hardly the strongest candidate who could have opposed Blatter. One South American official said: "Neither is perfect but with Sepp Blatter you at least have certain guarantees."

Blatter has endured a torrid three months. His 1998 win, when he surprisingly beat Swede Lennart Johansson, has been tainted with claims that delegates were offered up to £69,000 to switch sides and vote for him.

Accusations of financial mismanagement and making unauthorised payments have also been directed at him, and he is currently being investigated by Swiss prosecutors.

The dictatorial presidential style of Blatter has caused consternation at FIFA, with he and his team of advisers criticised for undermining officials, notably general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen.

Add that catalogue of problems to the financial crisis that FIFA is in danger of being enveloped by, and football is left with a governing body which has never been more divided.

Yet Blatter, full of bluster, maintained harmony could be restored within FIFA house and promised that he - the man who has split the world game - will be its uniting force.

"Give me 100 days, the famous 100 days, and I will come back with concrete proposals, and I will start to present structural changes within FIFA," he said.

"I will come up with a paper demonstrating how I think we can go about restoring our credibility.

"I register your deep trust in FIFA and in me. You cannot imagine what it means for me, having during the last few months been accused by a certain directed press saying what a bad man I am.

"Let us now work together and forget what has happened in the past months. FIFA should be united and we have to restore our unity and by doing that restore our credibility.

"I believe in the family of football. I have to restore peace - and I will do it."

Blatter is fortunate to have been given the chance to do so. As long ago as 2000, when his dream of seeing South Africa host the 2006 World Cup was snatched away from him by the politicking of Johansson and Dr Chung Moon-John, he was supposedly teetering on the brink.

That devastating defeat, coupled with the damaging revelations of recent months, should have left him vulnerable to a challenge. Yet still he secured the two-thirds majority he needed to stay in power with ease. This is the man who proposed a World Cup every two years; who spoke the unspeakable in floating the idea of matches being played over four quarters rather than two halves.

And, importantly to the English FA, who yearns to see the four home nations merge and play as a united Great Britain.

Crozier's vehement opposition to Blatter - he described the handling of Tuesday's meeting as "an absolute disgrace" and warned of a looming crisis in its finances - could pose long-term problems to the game in this country.

But FA chairman Geoff Thompson insisted: "I think any organisation, in particular a democratic organisation, will have differing views and those have got to be respected - just as the election result has to be respected.

"What we really wanted is for the internal audit committee, which was suspended by the president in April, to be allowed to continue their investigation of FIFA's finances to continue and that has been agreed. We now need to wait and see the results of their work.

"All we can hope is that things change. You cannot have a dictatorship in what is supposed to be a democracy.

"The president said he wants to unite not only the congress but the executive committee, and no one can be satisfied with what has gone on over the last couple of days, least of all the president."