By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – David Ginola’s unlikely bid for the FIFA presidency appeared to be on the brink of collapse even though his Team Ginola website insisted they were “still in it and fighting”.
Amidst some confusion, Ginola was not thought to have the necessary backing of five Football Associations to stand against Sepp Blatter as the midnight deadline for applications approached.
The former French international’s bid was underwritten to the tune of £250,000 by a bookmaking firm (nice work if you can get it) in what many regarded as a publicity stunt while a crowd-funding scheme was set up to finance his campaign.
The Team Ginola website said the crowd-funding page was now closed and that “all donations” would be returned, suggesting the brief campaign was over.
“A huge thank you for supporting Team Ginola. The funding page is now closed. All donations will be returned to those that have pledged.”
Ginola, however, later said on Twitter that his bid was still alive. “Not giving up, still in the race to reboot football! Will not give up… final nomination results might not be known before 8th February.”
Ginola launched his shock presidency bid two weeks ago, assuming the role of the people’s candidate under the slogan of “Rebooting Football”.
Few took it seriously but nevertheless, Eurosport obtained his full manifesto that was apparently sent to the heads of football’s six global football confederations as well as Blatter.
“At the beginning of this week, I sent a detailed policy document to the presidents and chair persons of all 209 FIFA member associations,” Eurosport quoted the former Newcastle and Tottenham winger as saying.
“Today, I have sent the same document which explains the nine key policy pledges of my FIFA presidential campaign to each of the heads of the six global football confederations including Mr. Blatter and Michel Platini.
“In sharing my ideas with the global football community I hope at the very least to spark a debate about how we can improve the game we love.
“It is important that we help restore the trust in FIFA which has been lost through the behaviour of some individuals not always putting football first.”
For what it’s worth, here is Ginola’s manifesto for change.
DAVID GINOLA: LEADERSHIP FOR A NEW FIFA ERA OF EQUALITY AND TRUST
1. GINOLA WILL DOUBLE DEVELOPMENT MONEY AVAILABLE TO MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS TO PROMOTE FINANCIAL STABILITY AND GROWTH OF THE GAME Under present FIFA development programs, Member Associations frequently face wild and unpredictable swings in income available from FIFA. As such, for many administrators it is almost impossible to predict revenue and plan expenses for the upcoming year. This creates problems in particular for smaller Member Associations who struggle to provide even the most basic services to the football community. This financial uncertainty puts many administrators in an impossible position as they attempt to raise the money needed to keep football on a stable footing year on year. To make matters worse, FIFA radically reduced development funding over the last three years – from 10.4% in 2011 down to 7.8% in 2013. And only in election years, does FIFA remember the most vulnerable of its members. With David Ginola as FIFA President, that will change. If elected Ginola will ensure football’s governing body works much harder to support grassroots football and administrators across the developing world by doubling the investment allocated to three of its key programmes: Football Assistance Programme (FAP), Goal Programme and Football for Hope. By targeting these three key programmes, it is possible to have a huge impact on supporting football in the developing world and supporting social development whilst only requiring an eight percent (8%) FIFA revenue adjustment.
2. GINOLA WILL SUPPORT MEMBER ASSOCIATION OPERATIONS AND REWARD GOOD GOVERNANCE Great national football programs require top administrative staff, equipment and infrastructure, yet many Member Associations lack even these basic things. For many members, it’s a struggle to keep the office open during regular business hours, keep it fully staffed with core personnel and with up-to-date infrastructure and equipment. In fact, some members don’t even have working office telephone numbers or have to resort to using private email addresses. As FIFA president David Ginola will make specific grants available to professionalise Member Association operations to equip offices with top personnel and cutting-edge equipment, computers and infrastructure. In an increasingly connected and communications driven world, nothing is more vital than giving football administrators the tools and resources they need to drive football forward in their country. In addition to providing administrators with the first-rate core staff and tools they need, David Ginola will also incentivise and reward great administrative performance through programs that offer: increased administration funding; increased development funding; and performance related rewards. With this policy Ginola will aim to help put and end to the ‘boom or bust’ era of Financial Assistance for Member Associations.
3. GINOLA WILL ENCOURAGE WORLD CUP BIDS FROM MORE COUNTRIES USING EXISTING STADIUMS Too often the FIFA World Cup leaves a damaging legacy of unused or “white elephant” stadiums that saddle local communities with long-term debt, stagnant infrastructure, environmental damage and social unrest. Yet, one of the great things that the Brazil World Cup taught us was that the World Cup can successfully be staged across a larger geographic area. For future World Cups, David Ginola will accept bids from one or more neighbouring countries spread across a wider geographic area that use only football stadia already in existence (e.g. nine or more stadia). The significant advantage of the new system is that it will help prevent unnecessary and costly over-development witnessed across recent World Cups (Japan and Korea, South Africa are prime examples) and open up the possibility of hosting the premiere event of the global game to new regions of the world. The new system is fairer to more countries, more cost-effective and more environmentally sustainable.
4. GINOLA WILL ENACT A NEW FIFA OPEN-DOOR POLICY FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ACROSS THE WORLD Currently, FIFA prevents the media and public from observing or attending any of its Executive Committee meetings and ensures that voting records are kept secret. This closed-door policy has been a great disservice to FIFA’s leaders and the football community because it has fueled public mistrust and suspicion. More often than not, these closed meetings take place at FIFA Headquarters in Zurich. David Ginola will reform this by enacting a new open-door policy, which will allow members of the public and media from across the world to attend and observe all FIFA Executive Committee meetings and votes. The new structure of meetings will be modeled on democratic local government ‘town hall’ meetings, where the public can not only observe all events but are also allowed a period of time to comment. In order to ensure that fans from across the world can observe and comment on events in football, FIFA Executive Committee meetings will regularly move to new parts of the world.
5. GINOLA WILL ENSURE THAT THE FIFA PRESIDENCY IS SHARED WITH ALL NATIONS OF THE WORLD Because football belongs equally to all people and nations across the world, so should its’ leadership. To ensure that the interests of all football citizens of the world are represented, the leadership of the game must regularly pass to all geographical corners of the world and never linger in any one place for too long. Currently, there is no measure in place to make sure that the leadership of FIFA is regularly shared among the many football-loving people and nations. David Ginola will solve this problem by enacting term limits for the FIFA Presidency, limiting holders of the office to no more than two four-year terms.
6. GINOLA WILL FIGHT FOR A MORE EQUAL PLAYING FIELD FOR PERSONS OF ALL RACES IN FOOTBALL BY REQUIRING EVERY MEMBER ASSOCIATION TO ENACT A VERSION OF “THE ROONEY RULE” In the world of football, as in larger society, too often racial discrimination remains a stubborn and awful problem that plagues every level of the game. Moreover, these problems are not necessarily limited to any one nation or race. It is appreciated that many have heroically taken on these issues and fights, but much still remains to be done. David Ginola will not seek to impose quotas or preferences based on race but will rather seek to give racial minorities of every type in every country an equal opportunity to shine at every level of the game through enacting a Member Association-wide version of the “Rooney Rule.” The new rule will require Member Associations to offer interviews to minority candidates for jobs of all types, including coaching and administrative positions. The idea is not to dictate to Member Associations who should or should not be hired, but rather to affirmatively give racial minorities an opportunity to make their case for positions at every level of the game. Racial diversity is one of the great strengths and beauties of the game and this policy will work to enhance that. The new administration will also seek to promote the involvement of women at all levels, from grassroots to Member Association presidency and beyond.
7. GINOLA WILL GIVE WOMEN’S FOOTBALL THE WORLD STAGE IT DESERVES Within the current system, different countries host the Men and Women’s World Cup tournaments in different years. It is something that denies the women’s game the standing and profile it deserves at a global level. Despite talented players, dedicated fans and far-reaching interest around the sport, women’s football continues to be limited by both attitudinal and financial discrimination. In this day and age, it’s just not good enough. David Ginola will change all of that by staging both the Men and Women’s football World Cups together, one after the other, modeled on the proven and successful Olympic/Paralympic model. The new model for the World Cups will unite every single one of the world’s football players and fans behind a global spectacular that takes the World Cup and, with it, women’s football to new heights. The new format will also see an end to recent issues that have plagued the women’s game, namely inferior surfaces and playing conditions. This new policy will bring a deserved and bright new era to the global women’s game.
8. GINOLA WILL ADVOCATE A MAJOR RULE CHANGE TO THE GAME BY INTRODUCING THE CHALLENGE SYSTEM TO FOOTBALL FIFA has traditionally been very conservative in promoting positive rule changes in football, which has led to frustration in the wider community especially with regard to the introduction of new technology to aid officials in making key decisions that can have profound effects on games. Ginola will seek to radically improve that situation for officials, coaches, players and fans by introducing a challenge system similar to the one currently used to great effect in sports such as tennis and cricket. Each competing team will be allocated two challenges per match in regular time where they will be allowed to request a review of a decision made using video technology. The final decision will then be made by a fifth official who will rule based on the information provided by technology. One extra challenge will be awarded to each team should a match go to Extra Time but no challenges are applicable in the event of a penalty shoot out.
9. GINOLA WILL IMPROVE THE IMAGE AND LEGACY OF THE WORLD CUP TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES Under the current system, FIFA doesn’t pay tax on the significant amounts of revenue generated by the World Cup tournament, often meaning football’s governing body receives millions tax-free while host countries are saddled with increased debt-levels and lingering legacy costs. While host nations spend billions to host the tournament, FIFA is seen as profiteering at their expense. For example, it is estimated that Brazil spent around $12 billion to host the 2014 World Cup, that FIFA pocketed record revenue of around $4 billion and, per reports, avoided paying tax of approximately $250 million. With FIFA making so much money at locals’ expense, there is no reason that football cannot leave a far better legacy. David Ginola will scrap the tax amnesty which FIFA currently demands from the host nation of the World Cup and make sure that FIFA puts money back into local football and economies who host the tournament. In earning massive sums generated by the biggest sporting tournament in the world, the very least FIFA can do is pay their way and vastly improve the legacy that the tournament leaves behind. The World Cup is a great and beautiful event and FIFA should always ensure that the legacy it leaves behind reflects that.”
While some of Ginola’s ideas make perfectly good sense and mirror those of other more realistic contenders, much of the manifesto is somewhat off the wall, illustrating his lack of football politics experience and exposing the way he went about setting up his campaign that was launched at, by most accounts, a shambolic, cobbled-together press conference in London.
Meanwhile, more seriously, it was confirmed on Thursday that the English Football Association has formally nominated Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein’s candidacy.
FA chairman Greg Dyke said: “The board discussed the upcoming FIFA presidency election and the welcome proliferation of candidates in the race. We agreed to formally nominate Prince Ali of the Jordanian FA, but also noted the encouraging reform message being offered by Michael van Praag.
“We will now await FIFA’s final confirmation of the candidates and look forward to assessing the manifestos of all who are entered into the election on May 29.
“We have said for a long time that a new approach is essential within FIFA. I welcome the chance for a considered debate in the weeks ahead before we decide where the FA casts its vote.”
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