FIFA’s presidential elections are coming and people are lining up to challenge current FIFA President Sepp Blatter. We have profiled those who are exemplary and today, we’re profiling those who are potentially on the other end of the spectrum.
Former French international David Ginola officially announced today that he is running for FIFA President. Based on this article from the Miami Herald, Ginola’s campaign has the beginnings of a farce.
For one thing, the bookmaker Paddy Power is paying Ginola $380k to run for FIFA President. There are also minimal requirements that Ginola must meet that he hasn’t met yet. Ginola needs to prove that he has had an active role in soccer in two of the last five years and have five of the 209 associations to endorse him.
While only requiring 2.5% of associations to endorse the campaign seems to be doable, Ginola trying to convince people about his involvement in soccer in two of the past five years. According to the article, Ginola has only been involved in the England 2018 bid and his job ended in 2010. So Ginola has some convincing to do to answer for at least another year of involvement.
Another issue with Ginola’s bid is that he really doesn’t know anything about the business. When asked about FIFA, he couldn’t name anyone on the FIFA Executive Committee, including Blatter and also admitted, “I need to know a lot more about FIFA.” He also seemed to not know any of the rules and issues facing FIFA, just a blanket statement about FIFA gaining trust.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but reading something like this, it makes Sepp Blatter look like a competent and worthy FIFA President. Whether or not this is some sort of publicity stunt, Ginola is getting paid and Paddy Power is getting publicity. We can only hope this bid doesn’t go any further than what it has already.
