Who still supports Fifa President Sepp Blatter?

There is still broad support for Sepp Blatter's re-election

Fifa president Sepp Blatter still commands significant support around the world among officials and media, despite corruption charges against some of the organisation's leaders.

Football associations around the world say that they still intend to vote for Blatter's fifth term as president, though some are now saying they have switched allegiances to Jordan's Prince Ali Bin al-Husayn in the light of the arrests of seven top Fifa officials on Wednesday.

Mexico's La Jornada: "Blatter ignores demands to resign from Fifa"

Chief among Blatter's supporters is Russia, which won the bid to hold the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

Russian support

Russia's media followed President Vladimir Putin in voicing support for Blatter. State-controlled NTV said: "That the move has been made just ahead of the FIFA election indicates its true and political nature because it was Sepp Blatter who, when Russia won the right to host the World Cup, said it would be the best ever."

Channel One, also state-controlled, said Blatter's longevity at the top of FIFA "sticks in the craw" of Western football authorities. "The aim is obvious to all, to discredit the FIFA leadership, in other words Blatter, who many believe is too friendly with Putin and Russia," state-owned Rossiya TV said.

"A new term as president is currently much more likely than a term in prison," Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper said.

Russian paper Moskovsky Komsomolets asks, “What are the political reasons behind the row surrounding Fifa?”

Moskovskiy Komsomolets saw the American charges as a political move: "If the USA succeeds in taking control over FIFA, then it will be able to influence the domestic policy of a lot of countries, because in many countries football has a very important political significance," pro-Kremlin pundit Sergey Markov wrote.

Around the world

Support for Blatter is concentrated among Fifa associations who have benefited under his leadership.

India's Hindustan Times, for example, said Blatter still had the country's support because "Blatter's art of giving is likely to matter more than the allegations of corruption".

El Salvador maintains support for Blatter in the light of regional projects set up by the FIFA president. Francisco Penate of Concacaf was quoted by MAS.sv as saying that as long as Blatter remains committed to those projects "then we have committed to vote for him".

Most outspoken was Guinea-Bissau FA president Manuel Nascimento Lopes, who told the Inside World Football website that voting for anyone but Blatter would be a "blasphemy". "Tomorrow we are going to vote for Blatter. How do we know anyone else would be any better?" he asked.

While all 54 African associations look likely to support Blatter, South Africa's Mail and Guardian attacked Fifa's "mafia-like culture". "It is fervently to be hoped that the US initiative will force Blatter to withdraw his bid for a fifth term as president - or, at the very least, account for the parlous state of the federation," an editorial said.

South Africa's Business Day thought that a victory for the Swiss Fifa president would not necessarily be the final word: "Mr Blatter has a hard-earned reputation as a survivor of note. But if he is re-elected it will be front page news the world over, and the smart money will be betting he will not see the term out."

Support falling away

Some Latin American reports suggest support shifting from Blatter towards Jordan's Prince Ali Bin al-Husayn, his only rival.

Brazilian Football Confederation head said South America would vote together

Marco Polo del Nero, head of the Brazilian Football Confederation, recently said South America would vote as a bloc, and every indication was that it would be for Blatter, Jovem Pan news website reports. Del Nero left Zurich on Thursday.

However, the President of Uruguay's Football Association, Wilmar Valdez, said today that Uruguay won't vote for Blatter, and will instead vote for Prince Ali. He said that a vote for Blatter would not be "a path for change" in remarks published by LaRed21.

Argentina's Clarin: "In spite of the scandal, the AFA (Argentine Football Federation) still hasn't withdrawn its support for Blatter"

Costa Rica is another country that appears to be making a U-turn. Its FA previously backed Blatter because of his part in local football projects. However, the Nacion newspaper quoted the association as saying it would follow Uefa in opposing Blatter.

Mario Ernesto Posada, sports editor for El Salvador's La Prensa Grafica wrote: "I keep a faint hope that El Salvador will appeal to decency and not vote today to endorse Sepp Blatter as head of Fifa... Corruption. Shame. Effrontery."

New Zealand is also reportedly switching sides. According to the NZ Herald, NZF president Mark Aspden said the change was made without referring to other Oceania members: "We're voting for Ali, not necessarily because we think he will succeed, but because we think it's the right thing to do."

Mid East support for Prince Ali

The Fifa story dominated in Jordanian papers, which highlighted what it said was "great international support" for their candidate, according to Al-Dustur newspaper.

Taysir al-Umayri wrote in the Jordanian Al-Ghad that Fifa's General Assembly would "either choose Prince Ali Bin-al-Husayn as FIAA president for four years to start the process of purging all forms of corruption inside the football empire, or to keep current president Joseph Blatter to continue corrupting and polluting football's atmosphere."

Egypt's Shorouk: "Today is the Friday of purifying the Fifa Empire"

Several Middle Eastern papers described today's vote as a choice between "change" and "corruption". Egyptian privately-owned Al-Shuruq al-Jadid's front page read: "Today is the Friday of purifying the Fifa Empire."

BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.