Anyone who remains unconvinced of Sepp Blatter's vice-like grip over Fifa would not have had to spend long watching him in action at the 56th annual congress in Munich this week to come round to the majority view.
Sports politics does not usually make for compelling viewing but by any standards events at the convention centre, built on the site of the old airport, make for a remarkable spectacle.
The congress brings together representatives of Fifa's 207 member confederations, most of whom bring at least two delegates to enjoy VIP treatment on the eve of the World Cup, usually the chairmen and chief executive. Of course no similar division of power between the executive and the membership exisits at Fifa, where Blatter fills both roles.
Aided and abetted by his right-hand man Urs Linsi, Fifa general secretary and a man who makes Lassie look disloyal, Blatter conducts events from a raised platform in front of a sea of well-tailored, largely middle aged administrators whose compliance would make any self-respecting potentate sigh in admiration. He even involved children at one stage, surrounding himself with beaming multicultural faces like the most benign benefactor.
Dictator is closer to the truth. In two days of meetings and debate only two contributions come from the floor - to the English FA's credit one came from them - and a series of votes on alterations to Fifa's statutes were passed with majorities that fluctuate between 100% and a disastrous 97%.
Despite this slavish display of loyalty Blatter cannot prevent himself praising the transparency of the processes on display. "I will ask democratically for your views," he says ahead of a vote to approve Fifa's finances. Of course there are none, and accounts showing a £100m profit are passed without demure.
Blatter concluded a 20 minute presentation on his pet-project, the grand sounding but toothless task force "For the Good of the Game", with the peroration, "we have debated this together." This must be a use of the word debate peculiar to Blatter, as he was the only one to speak, but it did not stop him getting a round of applause when he proposed the motion, "Do we agree to use football to make a better world?"
The stage-management may be comical, but the context poses serious questions about the health of the organisation. The most blatant example of Blatter's ability to say one thing while doing another is creation of an ethics committee that the president claims will independently arbitrate on contentious issues, particularly allegations of corruption that have collected around his presidency. In a classic Blatterism, the ethics committee was unanimously approved even though its rules and terms of reference have yet to be decided. That task will fall to the executive committee, a body utterly controlled by Blatter.
One only had to look behind Blatter at the membership of the executive committee for evidence that all is not as rosy as the president would claim. Among the members are Franco Carraro, the former head of the Italian FA who stepped down after it was revealed that he had failed to act on evidence of the corruption scandal currently convulsing the Italian game. He remains head of Fifa's audit committee, the body that scrutinises Fifa's accounts.
Also sitting pretty is Jack Warner, the man whose family travel company received all Trinidad & Tobago's World Cup ticket allocation and sold them on at a profit. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by Fifa's internal ethics committee after his family members sold their shares in the business.
Warner's activities as the most powerful figure in Caribbean and African football feature heavily in a Panorama investigation by journalist Andrew Jennings that will be broadcast on Sunday evening in the UK. Last year Blatter's office at Fifa was raided as part of an ongoing investigation by Swiss magistrates examining the collapse of media company ISL.
All this explains Blatter's strenuous efforts to address the issue of corporate governance repeatedly, and in English, throughout the last two days. And like all accomplished showman he saved his best line for last, announcing his intention to stand for election again in 2007. "I would very much like to continue to be of service," he told the hall. The last election took place against a wave of allegations of bribery, financial mismanagement and corruption, with some of the claims made by members of the executive committee, yet Blatter was elected in a landslide.
After this display it is hard to imagine anything other than a repeat next time round.
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