By Paul Nicholson
December 17 – Three of the five FIFA presidential hopefuls will parade themselves before a Brussels forum next month to be grilled on their manifestos and plans for football’s world governing body.
Organised by vehemently anti-FIFA and increasingly outspoken British MP Damien Collins, all five candidates were invited to the forum which is being convened jointly by members of the European Parliament Sports Intergroup and #NewFIFANow, the UK-based lobby group which Collins co-founded.
The three candidates who have confirmed for the January 27 event are Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Tokyo Sexwale and Jerome Champagne. UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino has still to confirm his attendance, while Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa has declined.
Rumours immediately circulated by #NewFIFANow were that Salman had declined because he was unwilling to face questioning on his manifesto or his personal integrity.
Asked by Insideworldfootball why he was “ducking” the event he responded with a copy of the letter below, sent to Damian Collins, that shows he in fact has a prior commitment to chair the AFC executive committee meetings in Doha, Qatar, January 27-28.
The insistence of the Europeans to jump to their demands as regards FIFA matters, and the distrust that subsequently engendered in the rest of the football world became a key feature of the last FIFA presidential election that saw Sepp Blatter returned as president against a much more Euro- and US-centric Prince Ali.
So far the current campaign for the presidency has not split along those lines but the position taken by NewFIFANow and its political support in Brussels is raising questions again over whether Europe’s political and commercially-driven football objectives and firepower can be trusted to run the world game with a global view and interest.
A release on the NewFIFANow website says: “Candidates are also expected to demonstrate how they have what it takes to lead FIFA through one of the biggest crises ever in world sport, with investigations by US and Swiss authorities expected to continue for years, rather than months.”
NewFIFANow says it will also be inviting fans and players to submit their questions beforehand.
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