By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – No sooner had he announced in his native Jordan that he was having a second crack at the FIFA presidency than Prince Ali bin al-Hussein flew into London for his first post-declaration function and urged FIFA members to vote with their hearts next time and not give in to the fear factor.
Looking exhausted as he addressed members of the Royal Institute of International Affairs on Thursday having addressed the Soccerex forum Manchester earlier this week before returning briefly to his homeland, Prince Ali entreated potential supporters not to be scared of voting for a new beginning – which he believes the majority did when Sepp Blatter beat him in May.
The former FIFA vice-president believes that with Blatter no longer in the race in February, those who might have been “scared of making the change” while the veteran Swiss was still in charge should vote in a way that “in their heart of hearts they know is right.”
No longer involved in the heirarchy of Fifa, Prince Ali has more freedom to talk candidly and revealed, when asked what the atmosphere was like during his four years on the executive committee, that there was little interaction and that too many people were reluctant to speak their minds.
“What struck me was an environment of secrecy. I want to see all the confederations mix together and share ideas. There are secrets and there shouldn’t be,” he told his audience at Chatham House. “If you don’t put things out on the table people will make their own assumptions and we have to prevent that.”
Prince Ali, whose relationship with UEFA president Michel Platini – his supporter for the FIFA presidency last time but now a rival contender – has soured, made no mention of the Frenchman despite being pressed on the subject, except to say that he had “a different way of thinking” and was “not running” just against Platini.
He nevertheless gave a stark assessment of FIFA’s current predicament.
“FIFA is in danger. The future of football is in danger and if we do not act now it may be too late. Without an intact governing body we will have nothing, we will get nothing and go nowhere.”
“Last time I only had four months (to campaign). If I am elected I will deliver a virtuous circle of development and commercial success serviced by a FIFA which is a service organisation with the highest standard of ethics and integrity and which works according to a strategic plan rather than presidential whim.”
Turning to the Qatar World Cup in 2022, Prince Ali said the Gulf state should have bid on a different basis and been prepared to share the tournament with its neighbours.
“With World Cups you should have the ability to spread it around the region. Qatar should have bid for the winter in the first place but more than that maybe also that it hosts the tournament regionally with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which might have been more feasible and easier to organise.”
Prince Ali also reiterated his belief that the FIFA leadership must have known about the corruption that was taking place under Blatter’s watch and which erupted just before the FIFA Congress at the end of May when 18 people were indicted by the US justice department, many of them senior football officials. “If things were going on they must have known. This is not to say the leadership were to blame but they must have known things were going on which were not right.”
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