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 Whoever is elected to succeed him as FIFA president in Zurich on
Friday will inherit a very different organization and a very
different job, where crisis management skills are more important
than delivering grandiose speeches to fawning audiences.
And, far from providing a platform to dispense largesse in return
for loyalty, the position should come with tougher demands and
closer scrutiny, thanks to a set of institutional reforms set to be
passed just before the next president is chosen.
Had it not been for the sensational arrests of FIFA officials on
suspicion of corruption in Zurich last May at the behest of the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ), Blatter would most likely have carried
on in the same fashion until 2019.
Then, either Frenchman Michael Platini or Cayman Islander Jeffrey
Webb, previously the heads of the European and North American soccer
federations, UEFA and CONCACAF, would most likely have succeeded him
in a smooth, coordinated transition. And Blatter would probably have
been named honorary FIFA president, and indulged with a platform at
big events.
But Webb, now under house arrest in the United States, is among the
41 individuals and entities that have been indicted by the DOJ on
corruption or fraud charges. And Platini and Blatter have been
banned from the game for eight years by FIFA’s own Ethics Committee,
caught up in the same whirlwind of legal and media scrutiny.
REPUTATION AT STAKE
Itself under investigation from the DOJ and Swiss authorities, FIFA
as an organization badly needs to rebuild its reputation, whichever
of the five candidates becomes president.
“Everyone recognizes this is the last chance to get it right,” said
one of the candidates, Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein. “We don’t
want a situation where, two years down the line, more scandals come
out.”
Top of the agenda will be implementing the reform package.
The fact that it will be passed before the election largely deprives
the new president of the chance to shape the organization in his own
image, while leaving him to manage a complex and untested new set of
structures.
Blatter's power was admittedly always far bigger than his formal
constitutional role; the huge commercial success of the World Cup
ensured a steady growth in revenue throughout his tenure and meant
he could keep his support base happy by distributing development
grants to federations around the world.
But the new system of oversights, with a full independent Audit and
Compliance Committee and a revamped Finance Committee made up of
members with genuine qualifications, should limit the scope for what
Blatter's critics labeled a "client system".
Professor Alan Tomlinson of the University of Brighton in Britain,
author of "FIFA - The Men, The Myths and The Money" and a long-time
critic of FIFA, praised what he called "a quite radical set of
principles and structural reformations".
"These reforms are really structured in terms of getting rid of the
gravy trains and the luxury lifestyle and the expenses for no work,"
he said, noting that 26 standing committees will be cut back to
nine.
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"They are asking them to do more work for less reward."
BRIEFINGS AND MEETINGS
For the president, Tomlinson said that meant implementing, with
FIFA's own staff, none of whom have been indicted, a strategy
reached after debate in the FIFA Council and the committees. "It all
sounds very boring, but it is how you could do it."
In place of the gala dinners will also be briefings with FIFA’s
American lawyers and advisers, who have since last May been working
out of FIFA's Zurich headquarters.
Those lawyers are currently conducting an internal inquiry: yet
another probe for the president to deal with.
And then there are the World Cups. Events that should be the
crowning glory of a FIFA presidency already look like fraught
affairs, thanks to a decision in 2010, beset by controversy but
unlikely to be overturned, to award the 2018 and 2022 finals to
Russia and Qatar.
Russia is sharply at odds with the West over Ukraine and Syria. And
Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers is a lingering issue, as is the
difficulty of hosting the tournament in a small, scorching desert
state - which has already forced it to be rescheduled for the first
time to the northern hemisphere autumn, to the consternation of
Europe's rich leagues.
For their part, the five candidates have all been upbeat about the
prospect of turning FIFA around.
UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino and Bahraini royal Sheikh
Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa are the bookmakers' frontrunners,
ahead of Prince Ali and former FIFA deputy general secretary Jerome
Champagne of France, with South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale
the outsider.
“It's not a poisoned chalice, for me I see it as a privilege,”
Champagne told Reuters. "However, I recognize the difficulties,
because if there is not a strong FIFA, football will be grabbed by a
lot of people who have no interest in the game and want to use the
game for other reasons - political, business or even criminal.”
(Reporting by Simon Evans; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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