By Andrew Warshaw
Spetember 25 – Just as FIFA president Sepp Blatter is due to inform his executive committee that he wants to stay in charge of the organisation for another four years, his only current challenger for the presidency says he has no intention withdrawing his candidacy and insists he is in it for the long haul.
Former FIFA deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne has already confirmed in writing, as per the electoral regulations, that he intends to be a contender. The next stage is to present letters of support from at least five national federations, the deadline for which is January 29, four months before the election itself.
Champagne has been carefully cherry-picking where to go on the campaign trail and will be in Brussels later this month to meet more key stakeholders.
But no stakeholders apart from national associations vote for FIFA president so which five have agreed to back him? In an interview with Insideworldfootball, Champagne won’t name them but replies: “Believe me I have been meeting federation presidents. I can’t say publicly who they are, not yet anyway. But they will be named when I send my official presentation to the electoral committee. I have plenty of time to do that, until January 29 in fact.”
But why wait until the last moment before showing his hand? Champagne recognises where the question is going and hints at a strategic game. “Because I don’t need to yet. Some FAs have internal processes to go through before deciding who they will support.”
As long as he won’t reveal where his support base lies, Champagne, ousted from FIFA in a political coup in 2010 following a fall-out with the Asian and European confederations after 11 years at the organisation, will continue to leave himself open to questions about his long-term viability as a candidate and whether he will stay the course.
Those same questions apply to who is backing his campaign financially.
“I am financing it myself,” Champagne insists, not for the first time. “But I admit I need to raise more money and I’m working on a project to be able to do that. I can assure you I will make that public. Just let me finish what I’m doing first.”
Ever since the multi-lingual Frenchman, a passionate supporter of St. Etienne, launched his election manifesto in London in January, his statement that he could not beat Blatter in a straight fight has constantly been thrown back him. Some take the view that he is only running in order to regain a foothold at FIFA even if he loses the election.
Does he wish he’d been less frank about having little chance of beating Blatter?
“What I actually said was that at that time no-one could beat Mr Blatter. I recognise I have my own limitations and I’m not going to flex my muscles but don’t forget the election will be judged on May 29. I accept the scepticism. I knew it would be something I’d have to face. But I don’t think I would have subjected my family to what I’ve been doing since January if I didn’t believe my ideas could evolve.”
What about UEFA President Michel Platini’s recent jibe that there was little interest in Champagne’s candidacy among federations? Did that hurt his feelings?
“Listen, we are in a political campaign and everyone has the right to an opinion but frankly I would never make a comment like that. But if you look at the impact generally towards my various campaign newsletters to the 209 FAs, I wouldn’t say there was no interest. I receive a lot of positive feedback.”
Champagne’s manifesto includes a plan for players, clubs and leagues to have more say in the running of the game, being more in touch with fans, reforming the transfer system, making FIFA more modern and accountable in its approach to technology and governance and putting and an end to the fraught relationship between FIFA and UEFA.
“We need to stop this bickering and rivalry between the two of them that has gone on more than 20 years,” says Champagne. “It has been detrimental to the management of the game and is misplaced. We need to put it behind us.”
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