FIFA released the list of FIFA presidential candidates and have narrowed the list down to five people after all candidates underwent integrity checks by the FIFA Ethics Committee. Musa Bility of Liberia and most notable, currently suspended UEFA President Michel Platini were not among the five.
In Platini’s case, the Ethics Committee will not consider his candidacy or give a review until his suspension is lifted. I don’t know, shouldn’t being suspended for 90 days because of irregular payments constitute failing an integrity check? I guess not in FIFA.
Anyway, the five candidates approved also hae some shady pasts in the forms of possible bribery and torture of people so maybe the integrity checks were graded on a curve. Here is a summary of the five candidates.
Prince Ali bin al-Hussein – Jordan
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 10: Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein the Vice President of FIFA talks during the Leaders In Sport conference at Stamford Bridge on October 10, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images)
Prince Ali is currently President of the Jordan FA as well as a Vice-President of FIFA on the Executive Committee. Prince Ali ran against Sepp Blatter earlier this year for FIFA President and lost.
As far as we know, Prince Ali’s name has been clean of corruption. He called for publishing the full Garcia Report, which detailed the possible corruption during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process, which Russia and Qatar won.
Another accomplishment for Prince Ali was that he was able to get FIFA to lift their ban on Muslim women wearing a hijab that covers all but their face when they play soccer. Before that, women could not wear a hijab and to some in the Muslim religion, violated their religious beliefs. Prince Ali made it so women could have the choice to wear a hijab during play or not.
Jerome Champagne – France
Jerome Champagne has held many jobs, both in and out of soccer, and is now trying to get back into FIFA. The last time he was in FIFA was in 2010 as director of international relations. He abruptly left to become a consultant in soccer because of a supposed feud between he and Michel Platini.
Champagne’s name has been rather clean as well and it probably helps that he doesn’t much care for Platini. Having said that, Champagne worked very closely with Sepp Blatter for 11 years including being his international adviser from 1999-2002. He may be a victim of “guilt by association” and even if he hasn’t done anything corrupt, he was probably close enough to know where a few skeletons are in that FIFA closet.
As far as his campaign, some initiatives that Champagne would like to pass as president include developing soccer programs for poorer countries and lowering the amount of World Cup spots for UEFA countries. Champagne’s strategy is that he knows he won’t get any votes from UEFA so his only chance is to give some of UEFA’s World Cup spots to the other confederations and try to unite everyone who isn’t UEFA against UEFA.
Gianni Infantino – Switzerland/Italy
NYON, SWITZERLAND – SEPTEMBER 18: UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino speaks during a press conference following the Executive Committee meeting at the UEFA headquarters, The House of European Football, on September 18, 2014 in Nyon, Switzerland. (Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images for UEFA)
Gianni Infantino has been UEFA General Secretary for six years and you may know him as the guy who conducts the UEFA Champions League group stage draws. Infantino was a last minute entry into the race but ran after Platini was busted and suspended.
UEFA’s original plan was to back Platini and endorse him for the election but when he got suspended and there was a risk of him not being able to run, UEFA needed to come up with a plan and fast. UEFA operates like a political party and wants to make sure they have someone from UEFA become FIFA President and have control to put things that they want through.
Infantino’s main objective over the years has been expansion. He came up with the idea to expand the Euro field from 16 to 24 teams and started the Nations League, which will make UEFA even stronger financially. If elected, he wants to expand the World Cup field from 32 to 40 teams.
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa – Bahrain
Sheikh Salman is President of the Asian Football Confederation and on the surface, he has some pretty good ideas. Some of Sheikh Salman’s initiatives if elected would include term limits for the FIFA President as well as Executive Committee members and promised to work for free. And then just when you think that Sheikh Salman could be a great FIFA President, things take a huge left turn.
While Sheikh Salman hasn’t been the target of anything corrupt within FIFA specifically, he has been linked to torturing and killing Bahrain citizens as well as naming athletes involved in pro-democracy protests against his family, which rules Bahrain, back in 2011. If true, and there is some pretty good evidence to say that it is, that’s more evil than even Sepp Blatter could ever imagine.
Tokyo Sexwale – South Africa
ROBBEN ISLAND, SOUTH AFRICA – DECEMBER 03: Tokyo Sexwale member of FIFA’s Committee for Fair Play and Social Responsibility and former Robben Island prisoner talks to the media on December 3, 2009 in Robben Island, South Africa. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Easily the most entertaining name out of the five (it’s pronounced “Ses-wally” by the way and not “Sex-whale”), Tokyo Sexwale is the biggest “outsider” of the five when it comes to being in soccer.
Sexwale was a political activist, fighting apartheid in South Africa. He was imprisoned on Robben Island for 13 years along with Nelson Mandela. From there, he went into government in South Africa as well as a businessman. Fun fact, Sexwale was the subject of South Africa’s version of The Apprentice.
Even though Sexwale hasn’t been in soccer all that much, he has had a hand in possible corruption. Namely, he was on the organizing committee of South Africa’s 2010 World Cup bid and that group authorized bribes for votes. The kind of bribes that cost people like Jerome Valcke his job and started the FIFA scandal to begin with. Again, even if he is clean, Sexwale may be “guilty by association.”
So as you can see, even though these five candidates passed the integrity checks, these candidates aren’t necessarily clean. Heck, one may actually be worse than the guy who is being replaced. There is still three months until the election so you will be hearing a lot more of these five, possibly six people in the coming months.
