By Andrew Warshaw
July 24 – Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, who failed in an attempt to wrest the FIFA presidency away from Sepp Blatter in May, says the veteran Swiss should not be allowed to oversee the reform process at his corruption-plagued governing body and should leave it to his successor.
In a statement, Prince Ali, who withdrew from presidential election after winning 73 votes in the first round, said Blatter, who steps down on February 26, should not be permitted to dictate reform policy and that the process needs more than a quick fix.
“We need a clear process, clear timelines, and a very clear remit. And all this should belong to the new president,” said Prince Ali, who has yet to declare whether he will run again in February’s vote.
“Although reforms are welcome and much needed, they are the mandate of the new president, not the old one.”
FIFA has set up an 11-man Task Force to supervise the implementation of the reforms, made up of 10 members of FIFA’s six confederations and a ‘neutral’ chairman. It has been mandated to report back to the next executive committee meeting in late September with a view to being rubber-stamped by February’s extraordinary congress that elects Blatter’s successor.
But Prince Ali, now out of FIFA completely having lost his exco seat and vice-presidency, charged: “It is the role of the new president to put in place the necessary systems to implement the changes that FIFA so desperately needs, not a Task Force trying to rush this through in less than 60 days.”
“How can this Task Force address change in any meaningful way within such a short timeline? There can be no quick fix to issues that are clearly structural.”
“Any Task Force that really will have the clout to bring about such vital reform should be a totally independent body, not from within the governance structure of FIFA.”
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