By Andrew Warshaw
November 5 – The Chilean official expected to have a major say in the destination of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups has been ousted as head of his national federation.
Harold Mayne-Nicholls led the six-man FIFA inspection team that visited all nine World Cup bidders and who will deliver their eagerly-awaited report in mid-November.
According to reports out of Chile, the country’s 32 clubs voted 28-22 to get rid of Mayne-Nicholls and replace him with Jorge Segovia, owner of Union Espanola.
Votes from teams in the top division counted double.
The vote is expected to have a serious knock-on effect, with popular national coach Marcelo Bielso, hired by Mayne-Nicholls in 2007, threatening to quit.
Although he signed a contract through to 2015, it includes a break clause that allows him to leave if the federation presidency changed hands.
Bielsa, a former Argentine national coach who this summer led Chile to its first World Cup finals appearance since 1998, told Chilean television: “I can’t work with Segovia – it’s simply impossible.”
The closely-watched election was apparently a fight between the larger and wealthier clubs, who backed Segovia, and the smaller clubs of the second division who wanted Mayne-Nicholls to continue as leader of the national federation.
The campaign generated such intensity that protesting Mayne-Nicholls supporters had to be broken up by police when the result was announced.
Mayne-Nicholls’ role as leader of FIFA’s inspection team kept him out of the country for a number of months, apparently allowing time for an opposition movement to grow within Chile.
Although his defeat will not technically affect the upcoming FIFA verdict into the ability of World Cup contenders to stage the tournament, it is yet another blow for the entire bidding process following weeks of bribery and corruption allegations.
It was Mayne-Nicholls who was the most visible member of the FIFA team throughout the inspection tour, giving all candidates some idea of their chances of victory on December 2 with a brief summing-up at the end of each individual visit.
Being removed as boss of his own federation will hardly be viewed as an endorsement of the huge responsibility entrusted to him by FIFA to help select the best possible candidate for 2018 and 2022.
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