By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – While Michel Platini bides his time before declaring exactly how he intends to improve FIFA if elected its president, his only heavyweight rival for the job so far has stolen a march on the UEFA chief.
Chung Mong-joon may not be universally popular, to put it mildly, but at least he has been quick to issue a manifesto outlining what needs to be done while Platini still keeps everyone guessing.
Chung, who launched his campaign in Paris last month, fills his mission statement with strategically placed photos. One of them sees him standing alongside Joao Havelange and a young Sepp Blatter, FIFA presidents past and outgoing, under the heading “Old Friends, But…”
The 63-year-old South Korean, Asia’s FIFA vice-president for 17 years until 2011, pulls no punches when describing how FIFA’s image deteriorated under both of them.
“Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter led FIFA for 40 years. Together, they made FIFA the most powerful sporting body. But we were all surprised and saddened by the scandals recently gripping the organisation,” he writes. “It is time for FIFA to open a new chapter. Continuity is important. But so is change.”
Elsewhere he continues: “I am ready to seize this moment to rebuild FIFA. We have an unparalleled opportunity to re-define the future of FIFA. I will make FIFA an open, ethical, and truly global organsation. I promise to do my part in breathing new life into FIFA.”
If this sounds high on rhetoric and low on specifics, Chung goes on to make eight bullet-point proposals which he says will enhance FIFA, as follows:
1. Strengthen ‘checks & balances’ between the presidency, the Executive Committee and judicial bodies;
2. Transform the Congress into an open forum;
3. Impose term limit on the President. I will serve one term;
4. Increase financial transparency;
5. Disclose the president’s salary, bonuses and expenses;
6. Increase the Financial Assistance Program (FAP) to national football associations, by adopting a more sensible and flexible mechanism of distribution;
7. Promote greater female representation at the various levels of FIFA;
8. Elevate the Women’s World Cup to a new dimension by raising the prize money.
None of these are especially ground-breaking but in a canny tactical move, Chung deliberately leaves points 9 and 10 blank for delegates reading his manifesto “to fill in with your suggestions.”
Some might suggest he pulls out of the race altogether before he makes too many more enemies. Certainly Chung leaves no stone unturned when it comes to denouncing all and sundry.
“For too long, the FIFA Congress has been denied the opportunity to fulfil its role as a forum for new ideas,” he writes. “It has been run as a one-man show.”
“The job of the FIFA president should not be to enjoy the luxury of the office. The FIFA presidency should never become a position of privilege or entitlement. The president must be held accountable. All of the president’s financial information, such as salary, bonuses, and expenses, should be made public. This is just common sense.”
While Chung’s blueprint mirrors many of the ideas that other candidates put forward in the initial stages of the last presidential campaign a few months ago and will not strike fear into his opponents as an immediate vote-grabber, it may at least have the desired effect of potentially winding up Platini.
The Frenchman may have built up a reputation as something of a visionary during his time at UEFA but, so far at least, we have had little or no idea of his vision for FIFA. To put it bluntly, he has not come up with any concrete ideas for global change – apart from his wish to get rid of Blatter. Whilst he remains the front-runner, sooner or later he will have to explain in more detail why he wants the top job.
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