Boyce: England are seen as arrogant and need to build bridges with FIFA

By Andrew Warshaw

June 2 – Jim Boyce, Britain’s new FIFA vice-president, says the English Football Association must start a new tactic of building bridges following the failed attempt to force a postponement of yesterday’s FIFA Presidential election.

Sepp Blatter was re-elected unopposed despite the spate of corruption allegations over the past few weeks that have seriously undermined his credibility.

But England’s attempt to call off the election backfired and Boyce, who represents all four British Associations at FIFA, says a new approach is needed.

“England in my opinion needs to build bridges both within UEFA and FIFA,” said Boyce, a Northern Irishman whose philosophy of openness and approachability is in stark contrast to that of his predecessor, former English FA chairman Geoff Thompson.

“[The FA] need to get good people there, they need to get people who are highly respected throughout Europe and the world and there are a lot of very good people in England who could probably do those jobs.

“They need to build back confidence again. England as a football nation are undoubtedly one of the best nations in the world, there’s no doubt about that, but sometimes some people feel that there is a little bit of arrogance there – I’m just being honest.

“Apparently there was a meeting before [the postponement vote] of the European countries.

“England have the right to do what they did today.

“I’m not criticising them for doing that, they felt they wanted to do something, they stood up and they did it.

“But the amazing thing appeared to be that David Bernstein was the only person on that stage this morning who tried to get the vote stopped.

“I’d have thought some other people would have gone up if they felt the same way and backed the FA, but nobody did.”

Instead, 172 associations voted against England’s move, with the FA coming in for stinging criticism from a number of high-ranking FIFA’s personnel.

“FIFA has come in for a lot of criticism, some of it is probably justified,” Boyce said.

“But if you look it spent $794 million (£485 million) helping developing countries, looking after under-privileged people and they put a lot of money back into football,” he said.

Boyce has a tough job on his hands steering a line between forcefully representing British interests and not speaking out of turn.

There is considerable resentment within FIFA over the British privilege of an automatic vice-presidency but Boyce did not sit on the fence when it came to the suspensions of Jack Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam, pending a full inquiry, for allegedly offering bribes.

“People who are in high positions have got to be whiter than white and if any of the allegations that have been flying about are proven to be correct then people have to suffer the consequences,” he said.

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