{"id":22296,"date":"2016-01-06T09:03:47","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T17:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/prince-ali-fifa-catastrophe-fears-before-last-chance-poll\/"},"modified":"2016-01-06T09:03:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T17:03:47","slug":"prince-ali-fifa-catastrophe-fears-before-last-chance-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/prince-ali-fifa-catastrophe-fears-before-last-chance-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Ali: FIFA catastrophe fears before ‘last chance’ poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON<\/strong> \u2014 Prince Ali bin al-Hussein warns that FIFA risks catastrophe unless he is elected president next month and entrusted with cleaning up an organization reeling from corruption charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody recognizes this is the last chance in February to get it right. Otherwise things will happen maybe in a different way,\u201d the Jordanian royal, among five candidates vying to succeed President Sepp Blatter, said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want a situation where two years down the line or a year down the line, again more scandals come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prince Ali was on the executive committee from 2011-15, sitting alongside several men indicted by American prosecutors and\/or banned by FIFA. The prince was beaten in May\u2019s presidential election by Blatter, who announced his resignation the following week in the wake of criminal investigations into FIFA, then was banned from soccer last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an incredibly important moment for the future of the organization, in the upcoming election,\u201d the prince said. \u201cIt would be a catastrophe for the organization if things do not go in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prince was considered the front-runner until Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al Khalifa declared his candidacy. <\/p>\n

While the Bahraini sheikh wants to be a non-executive president and disperse power, Prince Ali maintains Blatter\u2019s successor must by a \u201chands-on\u201d leader in complete control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are the president of the organization, you have to take responsibility for that organization,\u201d the prince said in a London briefing when asked about Sheikh Salman\u2019s plan. \u201cI have seen in the past at FIFA, this whole idea of blaming others for what happens in the organization. So I don\u2019t want this organization to go to a new level of irresponsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prince Ali published an updated manifesto that envisages presidents being restricted to a pair of four-year terms, preventing someone matching the 17-year reign of Blatter and the 24 years in power of his predecessor, Joao Havelange. FIFA\u2019s 209 members will vote on whether to adopt three-term limits on Feb. 26, the same day as the presidential vote. Prince Ali would have to ask a later congress to adopt even shorter limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo is enough,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to be hard-working and that includes the president. … You have to be dedicated to roll up your sleeves and work on the ground for the benefit of 209 member associations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prince\u2019s challenge is building on the 73 votes he gained in May\u2019s election, but likely cannot rely on the support of Europe this time. UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino has been backed by Europe\u2019s governing body in a candidacy prompted by the suspension imposed by FIFA on his boss, Michel Platini.<\/p>\n

Platini was banned for eight years along with Blatter last month over a 2 million Swiss franc payment the UEFA president received from FIFA in 2011 for work supposedly carried out up to nine years earlier without a written contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything has to be obviously on the books,\u201d the prince said. \u201cIn this day and age, to have an oral agreement is totally irresponsible. … You have to be open. It has to be accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expanding on that theme, the prince wants votes at the congress to be transparent, so the world can see which nation voted for a president or World Cup host. The current rules call for a secret ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am determined that we save FIFA and do it from within,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The prince is in Britain trying to gain the backing of the four home nations \u2014 England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland \u2014 along with Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a moral aspect to English football and the positions they have taken in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cI really would be keen on getting their support, particularly at this stage as I had in the last election.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Rob Harris can be followed at www.twitter.com\/RobHarris and www.facebook.com\/RobHarrisReports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Prince Ali bin al-Hussein warns that FIFA risks catastrophe unless he is elected president next month and entrusted with cleaning up an organization reeling from corruption charges. \u201cEverybody recognizes this is the last chance in February to get it right. Otherwise things will happen maybe in a different way,\u201d the Jordanian royal, among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-22296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22296"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}