That he did so despite the wave of controversy, repulsion and disgust which has crashed down on his organisation in recent days will baffle many not au fait with the machinations of FIFA and the self-interest which drives the majority of its representatives. It's hardly surprising because so many of the delegates of the national federations who voted for him, despite the appalling damage to the game's image that occurred in the past week, benefit from having him in charge.

Asia (the region in which Australia sits), Africa and elements of Oceania, South America and Central America, are his powerbases. For decades Blatter has assiduously courted the support of football politicos in these regions, men who many suspect have personally benefited from the largesse distributed by the would-be Sun King of the sports world.

Australia, to its credit, ignored the injunction from the Blatter backers at the Asian Football Confederation, and threw its weight behind his sole challenger, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.

In so doing it joined the majority of European countries who backed the Middle Eastern royal, along with the likes of the USA, Canada and New Zealand. It wasn't enough, as Prince Ali garnered 73 votes to Blatter's 133, ensuring the "continuity candidate" got up once again.

Whether there will be reprisals for Australia as a result remains to be seen. There are many within the AFC - particularly among the resource rich sheiks of the Gulf region - who would be happy to see Australia turfed out of the region the country only joined in 2005 after FFA chairman Frank Lowy's intense wooing of the then AFC president Mohammed bin Hamman.

The latter, a Qatari, is a now disgraced and banned figure whose role in masterminding his nation's World Cup-winning bid for 2022 resulted in him being outlawed from the game.

For most of Asia and Africa it will, in the short term, be business as usual.

But they, and Blatter, are surely deluding themselves if they think that things can go on as they are ad infinitum. The 79-year-old Swiss may well not be guilty of any corruption himself.

He wasn't named by the US or Swiss authorities when they made their dramatic swoop on FIFA members and sports executives in the days leading up to the FIFA vote, although the Americans have promised to follow the money trail wherever it leads, even if it takes them to the highest point of the greasy pole.

Irrespective of that the pressure will now always be on.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the representatives of the most powerful countries in football, have muttered about a World Cup boycott.

The Swiss probe into whether corruption tainted the decision processes that saw Russia get the 2018 tournament and Qatar 2022 will continue, and could, depending on what comes out, intensify the demands for those two countries to be stripped of the competition and a revote taken. Vladimir Putin's claim that it has nothing to do with the American authorities should be ignored: if corruption led to the way the votes went, then the decisions should be annulled.

Sponsors are already starting to get nervous about having their name attached to such an obviously sleazy, corrupt and cheating organisation, and they are going to ramp up the pressure for FIFA to reform itself. If Blatter won't do so - quickly, obviously and transparently - then the calls for him to go will continue.

Labour and human rights organisations have been mounting a long-running campaign against Qatar's World Cup in particular, citing the number of deaths of workers involved in the construction of stadia and infrastructure as a good reason on its own to take the competition away from the tiny resource rich Gulf state. Those protests are gaining traction, and the Qataris attempts to hide the problem - arresting a BBC crew earlier this month as they filmed the conditions the migrant workers live in - hardly helps their cause.

FIFA likes to style itself as some kind of principality, with its president as a head of state. Its revenues are not far short of $2 billion a year (mainly from broadcasting rights) and it gouges and demands extraordinary concessions from any country that hosts one of its events. If it is a state, as one UK commentator observed overnight, its akin to a rogue state.

Cleaning up FIFA doesn't begin and end with ensuring Blatter goes, or just that the executive committee (the all-powerful grouping at the heart of the organisation's decision-making process) is squeaky clean.

It means rooting out the corrupt, the devious and the cheats in all those other federations who continue to enjoy kickbacks and favours as a result of the way FIFA does its business.

Despite his win, this may be the beginning of the end for Blatter, and perhaps FIFA.

But it will take enormous courage and determination from those football leaders who voted against him and are demanding root-and-branch reform.

Perhaps it will take something as dramatic as a boycott of the World Cup to achieve the revolution that is so clearly required.

Without the leading European nations the World Cup would be a pale imitation. Imagine a competition with no Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, England, Italy or Spain.

If the dissidents get Brazil and Argentina onside it would be a World Cup in name alone.

It would be a hard sell to fans in those countries to suggest that their nation should miss out on the biggest sporting show on earth, but it may be worth doing if it brings the change required.

Blatter's victory may turn out to be a watershed. And not in the way he would like, especially if it ultimately provokes a schism and the break up of FIFA as it is currently constituted. There may not be that many tears shed outside Asia and Africa if that were to happen.