By Andrew Warshaw
January 7 – FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne insists he will not pull out of the contest as a result of Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein’s decision to run – and has called on the Jordanian to reveal the actual changes he wants to implement.
Champagne, the former FIFA deputy general secretary, was the first person to announce his candidacy a year ago but can now no longer rely on a straight fight with Sepp Blatter.
“Of course not, I’m the only candidate to present a detailed programme,” said Champagne when asked if he would now withdraw.
Firing the opening salvos once the May election officially became a three-man race, Champagne was quoted as saying: “We need to know what is his (Ali’s) programme beyond thundering slogans without any concrete explanations.”
“I’ve been a candidate for a year now, I’ve a concrete platform, I’ve exposed everything, it’s a question for him [Prince Ali],” Champagne told BBC radio. “Why is he running? Who has pushed him? What is his ambition? Last year he lost the election in Asia, so if you don’t have a base in your own region and own continent how can you be expected to be elected at the world level?”
But Champagne, cranking up the publicity machine, nevertheless gave a guarded welcome to the young reformist throwing his hat into the ring, telling Sky: “We want a fair democratic debate so we need more than one candidate and I hope more candidates will surface.
“I have always been an advocate of a pyramid in football that should be based on democratic principles with more than one candidate…”
Barring a dramatic u-turn, Blatter will be running for a fifth term at the FIFA congress in Zurich on May 29. UEFA boss Michel Platini has been increasingly critical over how FIFA has been run under the veteran Swiss.
Much of Europe will back Prince Ali but Champagne says Platini should have been bold enough to join the fray himself instead of hiding behind his popularity at UEFA.
It is an open secret that there is no love lost between the two Frenchmen and Champagne said: “I am in the race in spite of what other people were saying at the beginning. Now we have a third candidate and Platini didn’t have the courage to stand.”
As reaction to Prince Ali’s move poured in, the 39-year-old Jordanian’s fellow FIFA vice-president, Britain’s Jim Boyce, said it would be hard to dethrone Blatter.
“Prince Ali is someone of the highest integrity – but I still think he will have a bit of a job on his hands to remove Sepp Blatter,” said Boyce. “But at least it is giving people an opportunity. Prince Ali will have done a lot of homework, I’m sure he’s spoken to a lot of people, so it will be very interesting.”
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