By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
August 7 – Breaking a three-month silence since losing to Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan gave the broadest hint yet today that he wants to have another crack at the job but left a number of questions unanswerered, not least where his votes might come from next time.
Since walking dejectedly out of that conference hall in Zurich at the end of May, the Jordanian FA chief and former FIFA vice-president has provided little insight into why he lost and where his future plans might lie.
Instead, he has continued to call for robust reform and has recently turned his venom, without any explanation, on UEFA president Michel Platini, questioning the Frenchman’s suitability to take over from Blatter even though he himself would probably not have got near the 73 votes he secured in May without the backing of Europe.
UEFA are known to be surprised and upset with Prince Ali seemingly biting the hand that fed him only a few weeks ago. Yet now we have the genuine prospect of Platini and the Prince squaring off against each other next February when Blatter stands down after what will be almost 18 years in charge.
Addressing a packed auditorium at the start of the two-day Soccerex forum in Manchester, including a healthy international media presence, Prince Ali, no longer a FIFA executive committee member, was asked directly whether he had decided to stand again for president.
“Stay tuned,” was his response before adding: “Right now we need a candidate who is forward-thinking and not tainted by the past.”
That sounded very much like a yes. Indeed, although Prince Ali would not confirm publicly he intends to run for a second time, speculation is rife that he has already made up his mind and may even officially declare his candidacy by the end of this week.
But would Prince Ali really take the risk of becoming the first candidate ever to lose two FIFA presidential elections, one of them without Blatter even being there? And if he doesn’t have the backing of UEFA next time, or (most likely) Africa, or his own Asian confederation for that matter, how on earth could he possibly expect to do better than last time?
Unless, that is, he is not really in it to win it and simply wants to make sure that whoever succeeds Blatter implements some of his own ideas.
Endeavouring to explain how he fell short in May, Prince Ali described the refusal by most confederations to allow him to speak at their individual congresses in the build-up to the ballot as “intimidation”. “You can’t have the most popular sport being muted in this way. I want to make sure the next election process is done properly and correctly – so the whole world has the ability to really look and see who is best for the position.”
Not for the first time, he rebuked Blatter for not cracking down harder on corruption even though the veteran Swiss has always maintained he can only work with those who are put in front of him by the confederations who elect FIFA’s top brass.
“Anybody in any position of that nature should take responsibility for what happens in the organisation,” argued Prince Ali. “There’s no saying it’s everybody else’s fault. You are responsible for what happens whether you like it or not. He should have stepped down a while ago. If he had the best interests of football at heart, he would have done that.”
But it was the breakdown in his alliance with Platini that reporters in the room were most keen to hear about.
“I have enormous respect for him both as UEFA president and as a former player. But there is a difference between UEFA and FIFA which is in a crisis. Whether anybody likes it or not, Michel Platini’s introduction to football governance was as a protégé of Sepp Blatter. That’s a reality.”
Denying anything specific had changed in their relationship, Prince Ali added: “It’s nothing personal. I’ve sat down with him and listened to his ideas. I was not very encouraged in terms of the future being different from the past. I haven’t been rude to him, I’m just being honest. Why hasn’t he supported me this time? You’d have to ask him that.”
So there you have it though for what it’s worth, Prince Ali doesn’t rate Chung Mong-joon either saying the South Korean also represents too strong a link with the past having been a FIFA vice-president for 17 years. “What I want to focus on is the right candidate for the future, one really believes in reform. Someone who can bring back confidence whether from sponsors or fans. Someone who means it, not as a slogan. FIFA’s brand has been severely damaged.”
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