#FIFAelection: Presidential election - a new deal for world football?

FIFA will get a new president on 26 February when 207 delegates from around the world gather in Zurich to vote for a successor to Sepp Blatter.

In charge of world football's governing body since 1998, Blatter, said last year he was standing down amid a growing corruption crisis.

There have been widespread allegations of corruption, the arrest of leading officials, the banning of its president and the sight of big-name sponsors deserting the organization. FIFA is currently under investigation in the United States and in Switzerland for two different but overlapping reasons.

EU Sport Commissioner Navracsics is supporting fundamental change to overcome the loss of trust in FIFA.

Blatter has been banned from all football activity for six years after being found guilty of breaching FIFA's ethics rules over a 2$ million alleged payment to the head of European football's governing body UEFA, Michel Platini, who had been favourite to succeed Blatter and has now been banned for football activity for six years as well.

The bans on Blatter, Platini and Jerome Valcke, FIFA's secretary general and formerly Blatter's right-hand man, sign the end of the Havelange-Blatter era. João Havelange was Blatter predecessor and mentor, and ruled FIFA from 1974 till 1998. During the decades in which they were in charge football became an even more massive social phenomenon and a huge business.

The election process is expected to begin at midday, but several rounds of voting may be required before a winner is known. Each candidate has 15 minutes to address the congress before voting.

There are 209 FIFA nations but Kuwait and Indonesia are currently barred from taking part, so that makes 207 eligible voters.

To become president after the first round of voting, a candidate needs to secure two-thirds of the available votes. If no candidate achieves that mark, then a simple majority is required in the second round.

If there is still no winner, then a third round will take place, minus the candidate with the fewest votes in round two.

There are five official candidates for the post: Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa (Bahrain), Gianni Infantino (Switzerland), Prince Ali bin al-Hussein (Jordan), Tokyo Sexwale (South Africa) and Jerome Champagne (France).

The two favourites are at moment al-Khalifa and Infantino. The latter has the support of UEFA (Europe) and CONMEBOL (South America) and most of CONCACAF (North America). Al-Khalifa is supported by CAF (Africa) and most of AFC (Asia).

Sexwale and Champagne are thought to have no chance of winning. Sexwale, former anti-apartheid activist and wealthy businessman, conducted a very low-key campaign.

Champagne on the other hand was very active and was by far the most open and reachable candidate.

He was the only one to constantly attend public meetings, including one in the European Parliament covered by EU Reporter.

Al-Hussein has a substantial number of votes in his favour, mostly from Middle-Eastern federations (bar Bahrain of course). If the vote remains uncertain, he will be holding the balance of power, moving his votes in one direction or another to decide the winner.

None of the five candidates is a clear break from the past. Allegedly, four out of the five talked with Blatter, asking for his endorsement. None of the them really tried during this campaign to address the corruption and the lack of transparency of FIFA.

No candidate criticized the controversial decisions of awarding the World Cup to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. None of the five candidates signed the petition supported by five NGOs (including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch) that asked FIFA to tackle corruption and fight human-rights violations.

What's worse, front-runner al Khalifa has been openly accused of human-rights violations. Apparently, during 2011's protest against the authoritarian rule of Bahrein, al Khalifa was accused of detaining sportsmen.

On 17 February, EU Reporter covered an event in Brussels organized by ECDHR (Brussels-based NGO, working in partnership with three international NGOs, namely Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy) that highlighted the internal repression that has taken place in Bahrain since the pro-democracy uprising of 2011. More than 3,500 people have been detained - only 5% have been linked to violent protest.   

Salman al Khalifa has said that FIFA should not change but should simply be better governed and has said that he will consider making Blatter honorary president.

Infantino was very close to Michel Platini and said that FIFA shouldn't be embarrassed about making money. His programme revolves around three pillars: reforms, democracy and football development. Nothing too revolutionary but at least he seems to care enough about all aspects of governing FIFA, as opposed to al Khalifa, who makes the clear distinction between a 'Business FIFA' and a 'Football FIFA'.

Football fans are probably more interested in a clean FIFA, rather than how many teams compete in the World Cup (almost all candidates proposed increasing the number of participants). This election may well be a pivotal moment for FIFA.

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