By Andrew Warshaw at the Dead Sea, Jordan
May 4 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein has been quick to distance himself from a BBC report that he would personally consider sacrificing himself in order to strategically back one of the other contenders to take on Sepp Blatter.
As the presidential race becomes ever more sensitive with each passing day ahead of the ballot on May 29, speculation is intensifying that at least one of the three challengers may withdraw to avoid splitting the vote that could play into Blatter’s hands as he seeks a fifth term.
Furious at being marginalised by his own region at last week’s Asian Football Confederation congress, Prince Ali – who has been forced into relinquishing his post as Asia’s FIFA vice-president because of a controversial statutes change – conducted an interview with the BBC on the sidelines of the Soccerex Asian Forum in his native Jordan.
During the interview, he admitted that “at some point there will be a discussion” about reducing the number of candidates for the good of the cause.
“I have tremendous respect for both the other challengers,” he said of Dutch FA chief Michael van Praag and former Portuguese World Cup star Luis Figo.
“We all have our different approaches but we have one common goal about the need for change in FIFA so maybe there will come a time when we will discuss that. We are working for the same goal.
“It’s never about one person and that’s been the case for me from the very beginning. The important thing is that we support the person who who has the best chance of making that change in FIFA.”
Asked whether he would be prepared to do just that, Prince Al replied: “Of course, everything is there – but it has to be for the candidate with the best possibilities of winning.”
And that could, of course, very well be him particularly as Figo is the rank outsider.
Alarmed that the BBC report, which was later followed by a tweet clarifying the situation, could give the wrong impression, Prince Ali was quick to counter any suggestion that he had considered being the one to withdraw, from the election.
“The message I’m trying to give is that it’s not about one person but that it would be ideal, if we come to the conclusion over who, as a candidate, has the best chance of winning, that we support that candidate,” he said in a statement to reporters.
With Blatter odds-on favourite, what seems certain is that the three men who would be king will have detailed talks in the coming days to determine which of them, if any, is likely to poll most votes in Zurich.
Any such discussions with van Praag and Figo would take place “obviously sometime before the Congress”, Prince Ali told reporters.
“Having said that let me make it clear I am not considering withdrawing from the election.”
Last week, a news agency report that Figo and van Praag might themselves consider pulling out were dismissed by their respective campaign managers as a misrepresentation of their comments.
When Figo was asked by this correspondent on the sidelines of the AFC Congress in Bahrain about the prospect of withdrawing, he replied in far more vague terms than Prince Ali.
“If I tell you the truth, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Figo. “In this world, everything can happen and I don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Overnight Monday, in addition to him personally speaking earlier to a handful of reporters and to avoid any misunderstanding, Prince Ali’s office rushed out an official statement that he had no intention of withdrawing “especially after the supportive and positive responses from the football federations he visited in different countries, and the warm welcome his manifesto has received worldwide.”
“I will continue the race until the end,” the trouble-shooting statement quoted Prince Ali as saying following several tweets on social media erroneously claiming he had considered pulling out.
A few hours after Prince Ali’s BBC interview, Soccerex wound up with the eagerly awaited final act of the entire proceedings: an interview with one of the game’s most colourful, charismatic and controversial figures.
There was standing room only amid a phalanx of cameramen as a portly Diego Maradona took to the podium to discuss his unique career on and off the field.
Sadly the English translation of most of what Maradona had to say was at best erratic. But having been invited here by Prince Ali, he did the honourable thing by lavishing praise on his host – and bad-mouthing Sepp Blatter in the process.
“If I didn’t believe that he would be a good (FIFA) president, I wouldn’t be here,” said Maradona. “As the football world knows, inside FIFA there is total anarchy, where there is only one man who decides everything. But he knows absolutely nothing. Therefore it is time for a change. Even his colleagues should actually advise him to leave.”
Forceful words from someone who will always have his place as one of the greatest figures ever to grace the game but who seems to believe, somewhat fancifully, that he is suddenly an authority on the governance of football.
Always good value in terms of speaking his mind, it didn’t stop there, however.
“It’s time for Blatter to step aside and let us, who are full of strength, renovate football,” said the iconic Argentinian. “Football is becoming poorer and more corrupt. That is what really annoys someone like me, who has played in four World Cups. I was chasing the ball, Blatter is chasing champagne.”
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