By Paul Nicholson
November 2 – Delegates heading for the Securing Sport 2015 conference in New York that starts Tuesday will hear from one of the candidates for the FIFA presidency. Former South African government minister and anti-apartheid campaigner Tokyo Sexwale will give a keynote speech on the opening day, his first since declaring his candidacy.
Other keynotes will be given by former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and former US Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing sport.
Also on the speaker line up is chair of the FIFA Reform Committee François Carrard, who is also speaking publicly for the first time since his committed submitted its frost draft of reform proposals to the executive committee.
Another speaker is one of those FIFA executive committee members and president of the US Soccer Federation Sunil Gulati, at times himself an outspoken voice on FIFA corruption. Gulati tipped the FIFA ethics enforcers off in the Brazil 2014 World Cup gift debacle and was a strong voice for the full publication of the Michael Garcia investigation into the 2018 and 2022 bid processes. Gulati led the 2022 US bid.
While Carrard is proposing reforms for FIFA, Gulati is in the middle of implementing a reform process for CONCACAF for the second time in three years following the US indictments that saw the arrest of CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and Costa Rican FA president Eduardo Li.
Sexwale is currently heading up a FIFA monitoring committee overseeing issues affecting the development of football in Palestine, and is leading the mediation in the ongoing dispute between the Israeli and Palestinian federations over the free movement of Palestinian players, officials and equipment.
Mohammed Hanzab, President of the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), organisers of the conference, said: “We welcome the insight Mr Sexwale will be able to bring to the debate and are delighted to have someone of his calibre delivering a keynote speech. Mr Sexwale’s unrivalled experience as a leading campaigner against racism in sport and his ambition to lead the reform of FIFA makes him a significant addition to Securing Sport.”
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