Blatter says FIFA won’t survive if he is defeated

LONDON (AP) - Sepp Blatter says the “survival of FIFA is at stake” in next month’s presidential election.

As FIFA investigates corruption allegations against six executive members, Blatter is being challenged for the top job in world soccer by Mohammed bin Hammam.

Blatter says the result of the June 1 vote “could lead to a seismic shift with irreversible damage. Quite simply, the survival of FIFA is at stake.”

Blatter says “it is a question of whether the game’s established world governing body will continue to exist after this date or whether it will disappear into a black hole.”

But Blatter predicts that he will be re-elected to a fourth four-year term with a two-thirds majority of FIFA’s 208 national members.