By Andrew Warshaw
February 11 – Describing the upcoming election as “perhaps the most crucial date in the history of football governance”, FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein took a swipe at his rivals today as he outlined a detailed plan of action for his first year in charge of world football’s scandal-plagued governing body.
In arguably his most controversial public address during an increasingly tense campaign, Prince Ali, vying mainly with Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa and Gianni Infantino to take over from Sepp Blatter, focussed on unethical conduct, intimidation and the fear factor as he warned FIFA could be held hostage if another candidate is elected instead of him.
“Let me tell you what happens when you don’t go with the recognised powers in FIFA,” a bullish Prince Ali told a media gathering in Geneva. “Development projects mysteriously stall. Tournament hosting bids are suddenly compromised or withdrawn. National teams start to mysteriously face less favourable fixtures.”
“All of these are effective ways to punish member associations that fail to demonstrate political loyalty. The election on February 26 will determine whether a small group of powerful individuals will hold FIFA hostage.”
Strong words, even by Prince Ali’s own standards of openness, regarded by his critics as indiscretion verging on wrecklessness.
And it didn’t stop there as he questioned the role of Shaikh Salman, his Asian arch-rival, in alleged abuses of Bahrain players during the pro-democracy protests in 2011.
Shaikh Salman has denied any part in helping to identify athletes who took part in Arab Spring protests when he was president of the Bahrain Football Association. But Prince Ali said pointedly: “That person didn’t protect or stick up for his players at that time. It’s a simple, basic fact of the matter.”
How such contentious comments will go down with the 209 federations remains to be seen but if painstaking attention to detail was the prime requisite for getting over the line on February 26, Prince Ali would probably be in pole position.
His blueprint for his first year in charge, published while he appeared in Geneva, makes impressive reading, the first candidate to break down his plans on a month-by-month time scale.
“It contains concrete steps, no gimmicks, no emotional slogans, just a realistic road map,” said Prince Ali, who promises to lead FIFA “to a place where we can enjoy headlines about football, not as an endless source of corruption.”
Some of his proposals have already been widely reported but there were some fresh ones including publishing all minutes of executive committee meetings; immediate direct co-operation with the Swiss and US investigative teams probing widespread corruption; ordering the release of the infamous Michael Garcia report into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process; and appointing a five-member “oversight team” from outside the sport “whose integrity will be flawless”.
Prince Ali would also insist on FIFA’s reform measures being voted on individually rather than as a package in order to make sure they are debated properly and not just buried.
“FIFA needs to demonstrate that it is prepared to turn its back on the shame and turmoil of the past,” he said. “I am a free and independent candidate beholden to no-one. I will never seek to manipulate loopholes in the statutes for personal gain.”
Denouncing what he described as the intimidation and coercion of member federations, Prince Ali said he would clamp down on “mismanagement, corruption, self-interest, racism, sexism and human rights violations.
“These are values that must be achieved. Only then can FIFA retain any hope of survival. I am the only candidate who has not changed position, supporting a candidate and then becoming a reformer overnight.”
And he once again went on the attack over FIFA’s decision to halt funding to CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, the two confederations at the heart of the ongoing corruption scandal. “I’m against collective punishment. The idea of punishing national associations who might not have had anything to do with scandals is absolutely wrong.”
Playing an unexpected card, Prince Ali brought with him one of his biggest supporters, Liberian FA president Musa Bility who was called to the table to denounce the Confederation of African Football’s official backing for Shaikh Salman.
Bility was himself disqualified from the presidential race because he failed to pass FIFA’s integrity checks but said CAF’s executive committee had no right to speak on behalf of the Continent’s 54 voting countries or intimidate them.
“The governing body of a confederation has no vote and should not interfere in the process,” said Bility. “The exco has the right to endorse whoever they want but they have no right to make a decision on my behalf or that of my colleagues. I can tell you Africa will not vote as a bloc.” Which does beggar the question that if Africa is not voting as a block what is the problem?
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