By Andrew Warshaw
January 5 – The FIFA presidential election may not be until May 29 but as 2015 gets into its stride, Insideworldfootball identifies a number of key dates over the first quarter of the year that could shape the direction of football politics.
This Friday, just as the Asian Cup gets under way, so the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), at its extraordinary congress, looks set to support a radical move to scrap the role of AFC female vice-president, currently held by Australia’s Moya Dodd, under structural changes which critics believe will be a backward step in promoting women administrators.
January 21: British MP Damien Collins hosts a debate on FIFA reform at the European Parliament in Brussels where a number of key speakers have been invited at what is expected to be a potentially explosive open forum.
January 29: Deadline for candidates for to enter the elections for FIFA president, after which intensive lobbying will take place for the subsequent four months. Potential contenders are keeping their cards close to their chests in terms of whether to take on Sepp Blatter.
February 23: The next session of the FIFA Task Force appointed to recommend the best time for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup. The meeting takes place not at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland but in the Qatari capital of Doha itself, a move to assess weather and playing conditions in the Gulf at that time of year before a final decision on exact dates is made.
February 27/28: International FA Board meeting, Belfast. The agenda for football’s rule-making body has not yet been released but FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s idea of bringing in video replays and permitting coaches to be allowed tennis-style challenges against refereeing decisions appears unlikely to be implemented. Doing away with the so-called “triple punishment” – penalty, sending off and suspension for offences committed inside the area that prevent goalscoring opportunities – could be amended, however, after several failed previous attempts.
March 19/20: FIFA executive committee meeting, Zurich. This should be the time when we finally discover, more than four years after they were chosen as hosts, exactly when the Qatar World Cup will be staged.
March 24: UEFA Congress, Vienna. Re-election of Michel Platini as president plus election of several other key posts including Jim Boyce’s successor as Britain’s FIFA vice-president.
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