"Mr President - when is it enough?" Bin Hammam asks Blatter in his own backyard

By Andrew Warshaw in Paris

March 21 – Mohamed Bin Hammam today launched his media offensive to unseat Sepp Blatter as FIFA President by insisting it was time for a change after 13 years under the rule of the veteran Swiss.

Bin Hammam, once a strong ally of Blatter who helped him win Presidential campaigns in 1998 and 2002, accepts he will be the underdog on June 1 but says he has a number of initiatives which, he hopes, will generate considerable support.

He is promising more transparency in FIFA, opening up voting for World Cup bidding and limiting the presidency to eight years, or two terms.

His candidacy also includes replacing the current 24-strong Executive Committee with a 41-member board, that a new transparency committee be established – before, not after, scandals break – and that a far greater proportion of FIFA’s income should be spread across the federations.

Bin Hammam, who finally announced last week he is planning to stand, is here in the French capital ahead of tomorrow’s UEFA Congress, attempting to drum up as much media publicity as possible.

He insists he has nothing against Blatter but now believes the 75-year-old Swiss is past his sell-by date.

“In the last two or three years there has been a lot of confrontation between him and me, but in the right place which is in the Executive Committee,” said Bin Hammam.

“But it doesn’t mean we hate each other.

“He has contributed a lot for the development of the game.

“But he has been there a long time in that position.

There must be the question: Mr President – when is it enough?

“I will limit myself to a maximum of eight years.

“Mr Blatter came wanting eight years, two mandates, then [he got] 12 years and three mandates, and now four mandates.

“I am not saying I am the Godfather of football but I don’t see anything moving, anything changing.”

Bin Hammam, head of the Asian Football Confederation, knows he faces an uphill battle to secure a majority of votes and does not even have the full backing of his own body.

Several European federation members arriving here said the 61-year-old Qatari had little or no chance of beating the present incumbent.

Crucially, they said, Blatter had the backing of Michel Platini who will be re-elected unopposed tomorrow as UEFA President.

But after the debacle of the 2018 and 2022 ballots, Bin Hammam will certainly gain some support for pledging to scrap the World Cup secret ballot process, making public which country individual FIFA Executive members had supported.

In the build-up to last December’s 2018 and 2022 vote, two FIFA Executive Committee members were suspended while four other officials were sanctioned.

“I see it as very reasonable, it’s going to cut the doubts in FIFA back to zero,” said Bin Hammam.

“I don’t see any reason why we should not vote openly.”

Bin Hammam repeated that same stance to the BBC.

“We need to explain decision making – people are making decisions that affect millions,” he said.

“It’s reasonable and logical to vote openly – it happens in other organisations, why shouldn’t it happen in FIFA?”

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