By Andrew Warshaw
February 9 – Musa Bility, Liberia’s football leader who was excluded from being a candidate for FIFA president because he failed strict integrity checks, seems determined to do everything in his power to make life difficult for the official who barred him from taking part.
In a move that smacks of sour grapes, Bility says Domenico Scala, who heads FIFA’s Ad-Hoc Electoral Committee, should step down due to conflict of interest. And if he hasn’t done so by Thursday, Bility says he will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to force the issue.
Scala voluntarily excused himself from the last election in May as he shared nationality with Sepp Blatter. Bility argues he should do the same this time since he also shares nationality with Gianni Infantino, one of the five candidates bidding to replace Blatter on February 26.
“Article 7.4 of the Electoral Regulations is clear that any member of the Ad-Hoc Electoral Committee who has a conflict of interest … is thereby barred from sitting as a member of the Committee and must be replaced,” Bility reportedly wrote in a letter to Scala on Monday.
“For some reason, this time around you have not withdrawn. Following an unprecedented period of sustained turmoil and damage for FIFA as an institution, the fairness and integrity of the current electoral process are absolutely vital for FIFA.
“If we do not receive confirmation from the ad-hoc electoral committee within three working days of receipt of this latter that you are stepping down … with immediate effect, the Liberian FA reserves its right to challenge that decision by all available routes.”
Conveniently forgotten by Bility, who has broken ranks by announcing he will back Prince Ali bin al Hussein on election day rather than Africa’s preferred candidate Sheikh Salman, is that last month the CAS threw out his attempt to overturn his exclusion from the presidential race.
One of the reasons he failed the integrity checks is that he apparently had a criminal record. He complained the checks were not carried out under the correct procedure but the CAS rejected this and instead upheld Scala’s judgement.
With claims and counter-claims over electoral procedure getting messier by the day, Scala’s office wasted no time in dismissing Bility’s efforts to make trouble.
“Having the same nationality as one of the candidates does not, in itself, automatically lead to a conflict of interest for the members of the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee of FIFA,” said a statement. “In the context of the last election in May 2015, Mr Scala withdrew because he had the same nationality as the incumbent FIFA President.”
“With regard to the current election process, however, the difference is that no incumbent President having the same nationality as Mr Scala is one of the candidates. Hence, there is no comparable situation of a potential conflict of interest. In addition, none of the admitted candidates has raised this matter to date, which makes it evident that Mr Scala’s impartiality is not put in question by any of them.”
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