By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – Grant Wahl, the American journalist who hoped to run for FIFA President, has withdrawn his candidacy after failing to gaining the required nomination from any of FIFA’s 208 member federations.
With the deadline of midnight Friday Swiss time approaching, Wahl announced that he is ending his campaign to be “The People’s Candidate”, leaving Sepp Blatter and Mohamed Bin Hammam as the only likely candidates barring a late move by another party.
Although it was always a tall order, Wahl flew Paris last week to attend the UEFA Congress in the hope of drumming up support and edging towards gaining the crucial nomination he needed to take on Blatter, who is running for a fourth term at the age of 75, and Asian Football Confederation chief Bin Hammam.
“I had crossed the Atlantic to do two things,” wrote Wahl, soccer correspondent of Sports Illustrated, on the magazine’s website.
“Show I was serious about my campaign and meet with officials from various FAs to see if they would nominate me by the April 1 deadline.”
He revealed that “a top official from a World Cup-winning FA” had agreed to meet him face-to-face to discuss his campaign but had ultimately failed to go the whole distance.
“I had long ago realised that my best chance for landing a nomination was a mid- or large-sized FA, mainly because the small nations are so indebted to the development money train of FIFA’s GOAL program that they would never risk losing it by nominating an outsider,” wrote Wahl.
He said that when the meeting took place, he was asked why his own federation wouldn’t nominate him.
“They’re like everyone else,” I said.
“They fear the negative reaction down the road from Blatter and FIFA.”
Wahl revealed he was then told that that UEFA boss Michel Platini wanted to run in four years’ time and, as a result, would be asking all the big European nations to support Blatter so that he could take over from the veteran Swiss when he steps down in 2015.
The scenario of a Platini-Blatter deal has been widely reported and Wahl’s comments only served to cement what many in the corridors of power have been predicting will happen on June 1 in Zurich.
The problem, Wahl was told by the unnamed FA spokesman, was that nominating a candidate for FIFA President would be a public declaration of support.
“We would be more likely to vote for you in the election than to nominate you,” Grant said he was told.
“Nominating you is impossible.”
Wahl says he kept trying to secure that same nomination right up until 24 hours before today’s deadline.
“I owed that to the thousands of soccer fans around the world who had put their trust in me as ‘The People’s Candidate’, who had expressed their support on Twitter and Facebook over the past six weeks,” he said.
“They came from dozens of countries, making clear that the simple message of cleaning up FIFA resonated around the globe. It was a rollicking adventure, one that I’ll never forget.”
In all, wrote Wahl, he had contacted some 150 national federations and had received responses from around 30.
“Many of them voiced the same message I heard in that Paris hotel lobby: ‘We don’t really like the status quo, but nominating you is impossible.’
“Nobody had the courage to do it.
“The prevailing mood was fear.”
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734870817labto1734870817ofdlr1734870817owedi1734870817sni@w1734870817ahsra1734870817w.wer1734870817dna1734870817
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