By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – FIFA presidential candidate Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the emerging favourite to take over from Sepp Blatter, has intriguingly left the door open for a deal with rival contender Gianni Infantino to become his number two if he wins next month’s election.
Infantino has insisted that there is no possibility of any election pact but in an interview with Sky, Sheikh Salman, president of the Asian Football Confederation, was not quite so emphatic, declining to rule out possible collaboration.
“My relations with Europe are very close. If they want to sit and find a solution then why not?” said Shaikh Salman. “We cannot say no to anything. We will support whatever is good for the organisation. I have worked with Gianni for the past few years. So far there’s no agreement and no deal but let’s see what happens in the next few days.”
One name Sheikh Salman identified as someone he might consider as his deputy if he wins the February 26 ballot was Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the English Premier League, though only if the FIFA executive committee endorses him.
Salman said Scudamore, who has overseen the growth of the Premier League into a multi-million dollar industry, could be offered the role of running FIFA’s day-to-day business.
“Richard … is still doing a great job at the Premier League, and at the end of the day we have to choose (someone) who is ready to come in and take up this responsibility,” said Shaikh Salman who plans to split FIFA into separate ‘business’ and ‘football’ entities if he becomes president.
“I don’t want to throw any names forward because it is a decision that will be taken by the executive committee as well. We have to consult with the stakeholders at FIFA and people who carry weight in the game. If Richard accepts that will be an honour for us, but there are a lot of other people at the same level.
“We’ve seen how successful the Premier League and the Bundesliga are. The Premier League’s revenue is even greater than FIFA. I like the way it is structured.”
Shaikh Salman, who has widespread support from among Asia’s 46 federations and most likely from Africa’s 54 after the two confederations recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding, has been accused by human rights groups of being involved in a crackdown on footballers who took part in pro-democracy demonstrations in his native Bahrain in 2011. He told Sky he would be willing to meet his accusers face to face to set the record straight and guaranteed “a million per cent” that he has never been involved in any mistreatment.
He also remarked, somewhat surprisingly, that the FIFA corruption had been overblown. “Individuals have committed wrongdoing. It’s not the sport. Other sports are much worse. They haven’t been under the microscope like FIFA. People always use the slogan ‘FIFA scandal’ but I don’t think it is a FIFA scandal. You look at other sports – athletics, tennis, doping etc in all kinds of sports. I am sure there are cases which are much worse than what FIFA has.”
Shaikh Salman also took the opportunity to respond to rival Asian candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein’s suggestion that he had blatantly sought to engineer a block vote when signing the memorandum of understanding with the Africans.
“He has his opinion but we have to be mature a bit on how we communicate. If you want to take on that seat [of FIFA president], you have to prove to everyone that you can be wise and choose your words wisely. Any confederation has the right to come out and declare their support for a candidate. I don’t agree with his comments and I mentioned that in my reply in a very polite and respectful way.”
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