January 15 – Next week’s inaugural summit at the European Parliament by the so-called New Fifa Now campaign has added new speakers to the line-up.
FIFA Presidential candidate Jerome Champagne and former FIFA technical inspection chief Harold Mayne-Nicholls – who may also stand for president – are already on the list drawn up by organizers from the UK which has been particularly vociferous in its criticism of the way FIFA has been run under Sepp Blatter.
The line-up is strengthened by the attendance of the co-president of the Sports Intergroup at the European Parliament, Marc Tarabella from Belgium, and Remo Nogarotto of Italy, a former Chairman of Soccer Australia (now Football Federation Australia), and director and CEO of clubs in both the A-League and the former national soccer league.
They will be joined in the debate by Jaimie Fuller, chairman of Swiss-based sportswear company SKINS and by Jens Sejer Anderson, a sports politics expert from Denmark and the international Director of ‘Play The Game’, an organisation which promotes democracy, transparency and freedom of expression in sport.
A supporters’ view of FIFA’s current status will be provided by Daniela Wurbs and Dirk Vos from Football Supporters Europe (FSE).
“Next week’s summit will send a clear message to those voting in FIFA’s Presidential election on May 29th, that they have football’s future credibility in their hands,” said co-organiser and British MP Damien Collins.
“The Brussels summit will make it clear beyond any doubt that the voting members are expected to follow the collective voice of fans across the world and create a New FIFA which truly is ‘for the good of the game’.”
Collins has promised that the talk will not be about what is wrong but how change
can happen. “We don’t intend to talk about what is wrong with FIFA, as we all know what’s wrong,” he said. With so many different political ‘change’ agendas in the power play over FIFA ‘ownership’ in the room, discussion promises to be lively. If perhaps not very practical or realistic.
Notable by their absence are any speakers working within confederations, federations or leagues – not seemingly even from FIFA’s most vehement critics within the game.
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