By Andrew Warshaw
May 15 – If the FIFA presidency was awarded to the candidate with the best human rights approval ratings, Michael van Praag would be looking forward to a single four-year term of office come May 29.
As we know, it’s only FIFA’s 209 national federations who vote but van Praag, having already won the support of the International Trade Union Confederation, now has the backing of Amnesty International for his stance.
According to Amnesty, the Dutch federation chief has the most effective vision for tackling human rights if he upsets the odds to become FIFA president in the ballot at FIFA Congress in Zurich.
The Sport and Rights Alliance, a coalition that includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Football Supporters Europe and Transparency International, sent all four candidates a list a questions about the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar, and the FIFA reform process.
Although all four candidates responded to the survey, only Van Praag apparently made a detailed pledge to address governance including the implementation of term limits, integrity checks and publishing the salaries of leading officials.
Van Praag, who met fellow contenders Prince Ali bin al-Hussein and Luis Figo this week for secret talks aimed at drawing up a strategy for ahead of the vote on 29 May, has made tackling human rights a key pillar of his manifesto.
Amnesty, reviewing the candidates’ responses, noted: “Luis Figo issued a brief statement expressing the need for a zero tolerance approach to human rights abuses, corruption and labour issues, but gave few details of how he would address these problems.
“Despite numerous allegations of corruption and controversies over human rights concerns during his 17 years at the helm, current FIFA President Sepp Blatter made no personal commitment to addressing the issues.
“Instead, his office issued a statement outlining the work FIFA has done to tackle corruption, and pointed to a revision of the bidding process relating to human rights, labour standards, sustainability and anti-corruption measures.
“The office of current FIFA vice-president Prince Ali bin Al Hussein replied saying he was too busy to respond, and referred the alliance to his manifesto and previous statements.”
Eduard Nazarski, director of Amnesty International Netherlands commented: “The key test now is whether – whoever wins the election – they will deliver on these crucial issues. It’s easy to talk the talk and make broad commitments, but any claims that they will respect human rights and transparency will be meaningless if they don’t also walk the walk.”
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