And it wouldn't have mattered who he was up against. The presidency is decided by a vote of FIFA members - national associations of which the FA are one. A significant number of officials of these associations are corrupt. Some of those have been caught, others haven't. Under Sepp Blatter that corruption is allowed to prevail pretty much unchecked and people get rich. It takes an outside agency to root out this corruption as FIFA will not carry out an internal investigation under Blatter's Presidency. Even when a report is commissioned, it is edited and altered before publication. Not only is corruption not investigated, it is actively concealed. Why on earth would any corrupt official vote to change that? Any official wishing to continue making dirty money would be a fool not to vote for a President who not only allows them to do that, but does his best to make sure their illegal activities remain hidden. Even associations who may not be completely corrupt, but have been less than squeaky clean in the past (the vast majority I would have thought) may think it wise to vote for Blatter, even if they don't like him, just so their transgressions remain undisclosed. To make matters worse, it's a secret ballot. An association can spend weeks informing the media how sickened they are by the corruption in the game, how they are at the forefront of nations intending to clean up football and make FIFA more transparent, and how they intend to vote for change, but once they're behind the curtain, stick Blatter's name in the Ballot box. Asking the corrupt to vote their way out of corruption was never going to happen.
Change is only really going to happen if Uefa leave Fifa and or boycott world cups en masse. I wonder if the appetite is there for this to happen. I suspect those with a realistic chance of winning Germany, Spain etc. would find it harder to take the moral high ground and support this than others with a lower chance of winning. I'd be happy to watch a European international competition every 2 years whilst Uefa applied pressure. We'll begin to find out in a week or so when Uefa meet up before the CL cup final. I hope they back their words with actions. If nothing is done now, I don't think it ever will.