By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – Jerome Champagne has finally conceded he is struggling to acquire the necessary backing to stay in the race to become FIFA president and has made a last-ditch appeal for support.
Champagne, who has put forward a series of solutions for improving the game on and off the pitch based on a more transparent, accountable FIFA, launched his challenge to Sepp Blatter almost exactly a year ago but admits he still needs to meet the strict criteria for standing.
The multi-lingual Frenchman, FIFA’s former deputy general secretary who worked under Blatter for over a decade, has until January 29 to obtain the five formal nominations he needs among FIFA’s 209 national federations to be eligible to stand.
In an open letter to the federations, under the heading The Moment of Truth, he admitted time was running out.
“While I would have already qualified under the old rules, I am still not a candidate under the new rules until I have five letters of presentation,” Champagne wrote. “I do not yet have all the five letters…”
Implying that no-one wants to be seen to be supporting him, with Blatter odds-on favourite to secure a fifth term, Champagne begged the federations to show the necessary courage.
“The feeling exists that the final result of the election is set, and that it would be risky to sign them. There is also the fear of being singled out or punished. I am thus compelled today to solemnly call upon you to obtain these missing letters.”
In what was direct reference to the two other candidates, Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, who declared his intention to run earlier this month, and former French international David Ginola, who did the same this week in what many regard as no more than a publicity stunt, Champagne did not mince his words.
“Now individuals without a programme declare their interest, and gold-diggers (are) openly using FIFA for their own benefit, rather than being of service,” he said.
Champagne, who has consistently insisted he will not back out of the race, made it clear he might ultimately have no choice. But he stressed he had never once, in all his manifesto papers, laid the blame for FIFA’s ills solely at the feet of Blatter.
“I have refused the demagoguery to blame only one person for all the wrongs in football when the responsibility is obviously collective.”
“At this stage it is not about choosing who will be the next FIFA president because a nomination is not at all a statement of support or a commitment to vote.
“It is only about enabling a candidate, the only one so far with a detailed, realistic and implementable platform to serve your football associations and football, to be in the position to continue defending it and advocating for its content.”
Urging FIFA’s federations not to pass the buck, he concluded: “You may think that as a qualified candidate I will not have trouble putting these five letters together, and that your colleague from a neighbouring country or continent will be coming forward at the last minute.
“Frankly, I need you to be the one coming forward.”
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