By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – David Ginola faces disqualification from his unlikely bid to run for FIFA president for allegedly breaking strict rules over being associated with the betting industry.
With Thursday’s deadline for nominations approaching, even though FIFA won’t reveal the identities of candidates until its vetting procedure is complete, reports suggest the former French international may have fallen foul of election guidelines which insist all applicants are bound by FIFA’s ethics code.
Ginola’s campaign is being organised by bookmaker Paddy Power which is paying him £250,000 to challenge Sepp Blatter on May 29.
But FIFA regulations state that anyone associated directly or indirectly with betting or gambling activities related to football will not be eligible for any position within the football administration hierarchy.
Article 25 of the code states: “Persons bound by this Code shall be forbidden from taking part in, either directly or indirectly, or otherwise being associated with, betting, gambling, lotteries and similar events or transactions connected with football matches. They are forbidden from having stakes, either actively or passively, in companies, concerns, organisations, etc. that promote, broker, arrange or conduct such events or transactions.”
It was this article, for instance, that reportedly led to FIFA banning one of the candidates from the Presidential race in Sierra Leone football.
A FIFA spokesman, asked how the code might affect Ginola, confirmed it would form part of the overall vetting procedure to be undertaken by a three-man panel. “It will be part of the eligibility assessment of prospect FIFA presidential candidates by the Ad-Hoc Electoral Committee in accordance with the electoral regulations.”
The code would only apply to Ginola if he somehow manages to gain the required five letters of support from among FIFA’s 209 national federations, a highly unlikely scenario.
But a statement from bookmaker Paddy Power argued that the wording had been carefully examined and that Ginola had not broken any rules. “Both the heading and the content of the rule clearly relate to the integrity of football matches and competitions,” it said
The betting firm says it will stop contributing financially after Thursday’s deadline for candidates to start lobbying – but that donations from the public to fund Ginola’s left-field campaign will still be required.
“Paddy Power assisted by getting this campaign off the ground in the run-up to Ginola getting on the ballot and will not be contributing financially beyond Jan. 27,” it said. “We have always been clear this needs to be a fan-backed campaign. Indeed, crowd funding is required to continue campaigning once he is an official candidate.”
All of this assumes Ginola clears the hurdle of finding five national federations to take a punt on him and his bookmaking backers. What are the odds on that?
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