By Andrew Warshaw
February 23 – First mobile phones and cameras were banned, then a request for transparent booths was rejected. Now, amid intensifying suspicion about voting manipulation, a complaint has been submitted by one of the five FIFA presidential candidates over the number of observers attached to rival teams being allowed to attend Friday’s showdown.
Outsider Jerome Champagne has expressed his “stupefaction” to the FIFA electoral committee about how many personnel from the Asian and European federations backing Shaikh Salman and Gianni Infantino are being admitted to the congress.
Champagne, who has run his own campaign with few spin doctors, said allowing additional accreditations to campaign teams would “betray a gross violation of the principle of fairness. Candidates are supposed to be treated equally.”
“Moreover, the list of names of the persons benefiting from these accreditations reveals the presence of most of the members of these two candidates’ campaign teams,” wrote Champagne, who was ousted from his job as FIFA international relations director in 2010 in an unsavoury coup.
Citing “unfair and undue privileges,” Champagne, who worked under the outgoing Sepp Blatter for 11 years, says 20 observers’ credentials have been given to UEFA and seven to the Asian Football Confederation. Champagne didn’t say how he knew but says they could unfairly influence Friday’s poll because they would have access to the voting delegates.
Reacting to his complaint, the electoral committee, run by Domenico Scala whose increasingly thorny task it is to monitor fair play, said distributing accreditations was FIFA’s job, not his. “The question of the accreditation is in the hands of FIFA,” the election committee said in a statement.
Potential breaches of FIFA election rules can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but whether such a move can delay the election or render its verdict invalid is unclear.
Each of FIFA’s 209-member national football associations hold one vote and Champagne says there been a clear intention “to swamp the Congress hall with confederation employees able to access the voting FAs and their delegates.
“The list of names of the persons benefiting from these accreditations reveals the presence of most of the members of these two candidates’ (Infantino and Shaikh Salman) campaign teams.”
“Considering the gravity of the facts, I hereby lodge an official complaint to the FIFA Electoral Committee and request the cancellation of these unfair and undue privileges given to two of the five candidates.”
The other candidates are Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan and South African politician Tokyo Sexwale. Champagne, like Prince Ali, has long complained that the six continental confederations, who do not vote, hold undue influence over their constituent federations. As long as voting is secret, however, member FAs can ignore their continental body’s recommendations without being found out.
Meanwhile, acting FIFA president Issa Hayatou urged FIFA’s members not to waste the opportunity to change the face of the organisation and to agree on the reform package on the table.
“Our responsibility to FIFA and the game is to demonstrate that we – individually and collectively – are committed to: embracing reform, restoring trust, strengthening governance and fostering greater diversity,” Hayatou wrote.
“We must ensure that this Extraordinary Congress signals a new dawn for FIFA. This Congress will mark the beginning of the difficult work ahead as we begin implementing reform – bringing the changes to life. I look forward to… seizing the opportunity that has been placed before us.”
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