This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Sepp Blatter's chances of remaining as Fifa president for another four years have been boosted by the endorsement of Uefa's executive committee, which urged its 53 member associations to vote for him in next month's election.

The endorsement, signed by the Uefa president Michel Platini and the other 15 members of the committee including England's Geoff Thompson, "strongly recommended" that they side with the 75-year-old president over the challenger Mohamed bin Hammam in the 1 June vote.

Uefa's support is not unexpected as Platini is widely expected to run for Fifa president in 2015 and could see that ambition thwarted if Bin Hammam wins. Blatter has promised to serve only one more four-year term.

However, the Qatari challenger – who backed Blatter's campaigns in 1998 and 2002 and is a longstanding Fifa executive committee member but says it is time for a change at the top and promises to usher in a new era of transparency – had entertained hopes of doing a deal with Platini.

The Uefa endorsement caps a good week for Blatter's campaign after visa problems meant Bin Hammam was unable to address Concacaf's congress in Miami.

Blatter left the congress convinced that Concacaf's controversial president Jack Warner would deliver the region's pivotal bloc of 35 votes for him and while Bin Hammam has been promised a later audience in Trinidad, he will not meet all 35 member associations.

Blatter is also believed to be confident of the vast majority of Uefa's 53 votes and has received pledges of support from the confederations in South America and Oceania.

Both candidates have made financial promises to the 208 Fifa members entitled to vote. Blatter, stung by fierce criticism and corruption allegations against Fifa during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, has promised to improve transparency amid a blizzard of new policy initiaves.

He said he would overhaul the World Cup bidding process, establish a new board to improve Fifa's credibility and review calls to introduce goalline technology.

Next week, he will announce a crackdown on match fixing alongside Interpol and launch a taskforce featuring Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, Sir Bobby Charlton and the FA general secretary Alex Horne that is supposed to help improve the standard of play and entertainment value in international football.

Uefa's directive, plus the likelihood that the other home nations will vote for Blatter and the endorsement of Thompson, could leave the English FA in a difficult position.

There are those on the FA board who would find it unpalatable to back Blatter given his role in undermining England's 2018 World Cup bid, which ended in humiliation with only two votes.

The FA board has hosted both Blatter and Bin Hammam, and is expected to discuss the issue at its board meeting on 19 May. An alternative option would be to abstain, but that would yield the FA little political benefit.

Bin Hammam's well-funded campaign will hope to build on support in Asia and parts of Africa, where there are a combined 99 votes on offer, and continue to work to undermine Blatter's support base elsewhere.