By Andrew Warshaw in Brussels
January 21 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the Chilean who ran FIFA’s technical inspection team that examined the credentials of all 2018 and 2022 World Cup candidates, says he will press for the finals to be increased from 32 to 36 teams as part of his presidential election manifesto – if he decides to run.
Mayne-Nicholls, who has still not made up his mind whether to take on Sepp Blatter just days before the January 29 deadline for nominations, presented the idea at the inaugural NewFifaNow summit that pulled together politicians, administrators and reform campaigners at the European Parliament to form a coalition pushing for greater change at football’s world governing body following yeas of scandal and corruption.
Mayne-Nicholls, who until now has given no indication of how hewould change FIFA, says increasing the finals by four teams would get round the problem of Confederations squabbling among each other for greater representation.
In a veiled dig at Blatter who is going for a fifth mandate on May 29, the former head of the Chilean FA joined many among football’s elite who believe two presidential terms of office should be the maximum “so the president works for the future of the game, not for collecting votes”.
He was also extremely vocal when it came to the decision to hold a joint ballot for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups saying it was the biggest mistake FIFA could have made.
“The result was that nobody assumed real leadership in regard to such an important subject,” said Mayne-Nicholls. “There were all kinds of rumours mainly about vote-swapping but nothing was done to stop it. FIFA’s image suffered badly.”
“For me it was really sad to read and hear such stories. The dates for 2022 are still in doubt and the negative stories never seem to end.”
“But there is an even bigger problem – how to recover the confidence of billions of fans all over the world.”
During the same session, it was revealed that the English Football Association had agreed to make its secret file on FIFA executive committee members compiled during England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid available to government officials, potentially opening up fresh lines of inquiry into any corruption by those who voted.
Former sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe told the audience that members of the culture, media and sport committee “are going to be allowed to see that file so we will see what was held at the time.”
Although FIFA has been conducting its own reform programme under Blatter, the Brussels summit issued a hard-hitting communiqué stressing that what had been achieved did not go far enough and called for the establishment of a more accountable FIFA Reform Commission overseen by an independent authority such as UNESCO.
Part of its mandate would be to publish “all current and outstanding corruption inquiries”, oversee an audit of “all football development programmes” across the world, publish the minutes of all its main meetings, allow former players to become exco members and permit fans to vote for five exco positions.
To this effect, the new international coalition said it would be lobbying sponsors and governments and contact every one of FIFA’s associations to explain the rationale behind the new ideas.
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