By Paul Nicholson
August 1 – The name of Tokyo Sexwale is being whispered as a potential candidate for the FIFA presidency with business leaders and politicians apparently encouraging the South African businessman to consider running for football’s top job and bring about the global change the organisation needs.
The latest to pick up on the rumours is influential German news magazine Der Spiegel which says “an increasing amount of politicians, corporate executive and opinion leaders are urging South African freedom fighter and Nelson Mandela’s right hand man of decades to run for the FIFA presidency”.
Sexwale is making no comment on his intentions but there appears to be a gently building groundswell of influential support for a candidate who would provide a real alternative to the two so-far declared challengers for the FIFA presidency, UEFA’s Michel Platini and Korea’s Chung Mong-joon. Usually reliable sources have alerted Insideworldfootball to the fact that Chung may be facing some ethics issues in a forthcoming Ethics Committee ruling which would potentially prevent him from running for the presidency.
Sexwale is no stranger to football or FIFA. He is a member of FIFA’s anti-discrimination committee as well as its media committee. He is also leading the monitoring committee set up at the Congress last May to find some form of resolution in the bitter dispute between Palestine and Israel over the freedom of movement of players, officials and equipment in the West Bank and Gaza.
If he were to run for the FIFA presidency Der Spiegel quotes a FIFA insider as saying that he could “safely count on almost all of Africa’s 54 votes”. But his appeal would go far beyond Africa, particularly asking big questions of votes in the Americas and CONCACAF in particular which has 35 votes – 25 in the Caribbean where there is concern that their voices could be lost in the new FIFA to come, especially under a European takeover.
Sexwale spent 13 years as a political prisoner in South Africa’s maximum security prison on Robben Island having been convicted of terrorism and conspiracy to overthrow the government.
It was here that he met Nelson Mandela and on his release in 1990, Sexwale embarked on a political career with the African National Congress (ANC) that has seen him hold various positions in the South African governent.
In parallel he has had a very successful business career amassing a personal fortune estimated at about $200 million, and predominantly based around his diamond mining interests in South Africa.
Perhaps the biggest endorsement of his character is that Nelson Mandela left him solely in charge of his foundation and trusts. He is the only person who is authorised to speak on their behalf.
More recently he has shifted his focus from South African politics to his newly founded Global Watch: Say No to Racism-Discrimination in all Sport.
In football Sexwale was a non-executive board member of the losing South Africa 2006 FIFA World Cup bid, but on the winning side for 2010. He was a member of the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee.
Sexwale has already publicly questioned the alleged $10 million bribe to former FIFA vice president Jack Warner and said that an investigation must clear potential misdeeds. “Where are the documents, where are the invoices, where are the budgets, where are the projects on the ground?” he said in an interview with the BBC.
Sexwale understands the power and beauty of football more acutely than most. He was one of five political prisoners on Robben Island who formed the Makana Football Association and organised a league in what is an inspiring story of the triumph of human spirit. Sexwale is often quoted as saying “we broke every rule of apartheid, but we never broke one rule of FIFA”.
There is no doubt that Sexwale would bring a completely different complexion to the FIFA presidential race, and provide a genuine alternative from outside the usually closed world of football politicians. Whether he will stand or not is a different matter, though he is clearly not someone afraid of a firefight.
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