By Paul Nicholson
January 26 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has launched his first serious rocket in the race for the leadership of the governing body and his fired it in the direction of Nyon and its grandees at UEFA, and what he sees as their behind the scenes manoeuvring.
Until now Blatter has kept his own counsel on the upcoming presidential elections and on the crucial issue of reform has insisted the FIFA ethics process must be allowed to follow its course.
In an interview with CNN, Blatter accuses UEFA of lacking courage saying they should put up their own candidate. UEFA have an executive committee meeting today (Monday) and a statement is expected at the end of that meeting on who they support – though perhaps the biggest shock to everyone would be if it was anyone other than Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein.
For several months UEFA and its president Michel Platini have taken very opportunity to call for Blatter to stand aside, but the European confederation has failed to find a credible candidate from within their ranks. So much so that they resorted, almost desperately, to hunting the world for anyone who could legitimately take on Blatter.
They eventually found their man in FIFA vice-president, Prince Ali, who has fallen foul of his own confederation and pushed towards the political fringes, losing his place on FIFA’s exco following some persistent and sharp political manoeuvring by Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president SheikhSalman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa.
The AFC have said they will be backing Blatter, not Prince Ali.
But that hasn’t deterred UEFA who see Prince Ali as their man and have been campaigning hard (and not quite as silently behind the scenes as they had believed) using their influence and partnerships to build their anti-Blatter ‘consortium’ across the world.
Blatter, who will be seeking a fifth term as FIFA president, told CNN that: “They want to get rid of me…All this opposition is coming now it’s unfortunate to say it, it’s coming from Nyon, from UEFA. They don’t have the courage to come in.
“So let me go (on) – be respectful! Because in football you learn to win but you also learn to lose. So I’m going now. If I win the better, if I lose ok!”
Initially the criticism of the reform process was around FIFA’s refusal to approve the proposals of reduced terms of office and age limits for presidents. This meant Blatter could stand again. Then the criticism switched to the furore around the Garcia report into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding and a clamour around Blatter’s leadership during this time.
“You know it is impossible to make everybody happy,” said Blatter.
“If I would have only positive press then it would not be good. And I like criticism as long as the criticism is… I would say fair criticism. I like the discussion to go with that. But listen I’ve been there such a long time now and I just want to finish that.”
But Blatter says the reform process is still a key part of his agenda going forward.
“I have to say I have not finished my mission because it’s a mission to be in football. We have started in 2011 with the reform process. The reform process is not over. I would like to have these four years to finish it and to show that football is more than a game.”
But the clamour outside the governing bodies – most forcefully led by the British politician lead group New FIFA Now (ironically with a disgraced ethics violator in former English FA president Lord Triesmann at the forefront) – seems to be more for revolution than reform. Which in turn raises more questions for football about the involvement of government influence in the way the game is run.
The football political strategists will be aware of this and the potential danger it could create for their positions, whether they are with Blatter or against him. Blatter is aware of this as well and called for a unity within football. “Football is a team sport. Let’s go together with the team. I invite the confederation of UEFA and especially the leaders of UEFA that are so bitterly attacking me: join! Join! Football is a unity. And we need this unity in this world.”
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