Retired Portuguese footballer Luís Figo is one of three candidates trying to unseat FIFA President Sepp Blatter at the organization's upcoming elections. The "once in a generation election," as Human Rights Watch's Minky Worden described it, will take place on May 29 at the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich. The former Real Madrid and Barcelona midfielder was the first candidate to unveil his manifesto in which he called for an open dialogue about the future of the World Cup as well as increasing the body's transparency and redistributing its revenue. SBD Global reached out to all candidates -- Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Michael van Praag, Figo and Blatter -- for their views and opinions on some of the biggest issues facing FIFA. Incumbent Blatter declined to take part in the process, according to a FIFA spokesperson.
Q: You describe increasing FIFA’s transparency as one of the main goals in your manifesto for the organization’s presidency. How will you try to achieve this goal and what sets your candidacy apart from the others? Also, what has to change within FIFA to make it happen?
Luís Figo: The more transparent we can be, the more we will win back the trust of fans across the world.
It’s partly about changing the culture of leadership at FIFA, taking responsibility and leading by example. More specifically, I want to see an Independent Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee take charge of supervising the FIFA president and the entire FIFA organization to ensure good governance is implemented. It will, in particular, supervise FIFA’s processes such as making sure that all decisions are taken following a proper democratic consultation process, that FIFA’s financial transactions follow a proper tender process for suppliers, and that the distribution of FIFA’s revenues are closely monitored and audited. I also want to see a merged Ethics and Disciplinary Committee to enable it to administer sanctions. This merged committee will be fully independent from the Executive Committee and Congress and have to provide full publication of decisions.
Q: Allocation of FIFA’s money seems to be a major topic for all candidates. How do you want FIFA’s money to be distributed and are any regions of the world underserved? Also, what would be the goal of a changed allocation?
Figo: FIFA belongs to its member associations and it is only natural that FIFA’s revenues are distributed back to them directly. This is needed to help further strengthen the member associations and make sure they are ready to meet our common objective to develop football to the next level.
I propose that 50 percent of FIFA’s revenues -- $2.5 billion -- are distributed back to the federations. This means $2 million per year to each federation to invest in the development of football in its country. Currently, FIFA distributes around $275,000 plus a few specific projects support to some federations.
I will also allocate another $300 million to be distributed to the member associations in highest need, ear-marked for the construction of specific football infrastructure projects. This means an additional $2 million for 150 federations over four years.
I also intend to use $1 billion of FIFA’s $1.5 billion reserves that are in the bank to create different development projects. One million dollars per member association for the “Schools for Football” project, another million per federation for the “Boys and Girls for Football” project once the target of a 10 percent increase in registered boys and girls is reached, plus a bonus of $2 million to each of the 10 member associations with the highest growth rate in four years. These are only a few investment measures I suggest. These are easily done with a more efficient and effective way to invest revenues generated by the World Cup.
All revenues flowing from FIFA to the member associations would be centrally audited to ensure investment is carried out in accordance with clearly defined and agreed project plans.
The overall objective and idea behind my project is that football revenues should be used mainly to invest in football, to bring more children and young boys and girls to practice sports.
Q: FIFA is calling for the end of third-party ownership/investment in players. However, leagues and clubs in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and various other countries around the world rely on it. What’s your take on TPO? What should FIFA do to make sure clubs and leagues are not damaged by a TPO ban? What is FIFA’s responsibility to lead on this issue?
Figo: FIFA should implement measures to protect and develop football. The decision was made and now it’s time to implement it, respect it and evaluate its results.
Q: Corruption and bribery have damaged FIFA’s reputation in recent years. How can you combat this issue? How do you avoid another fiasco like the '22 Winter World Cup in Qatar?
Figo: I think transparency is the key. Transparency allows fans and other organizations to understand the reasons behind your decisions. Transparency attracts sponsors and partners to your organization and prevents what we have been seeing with big companies setting themselves apart of FIFA because they think it’s not a recommendable organization to be associated with.
I can guarantee that I will implement a clear separation of powers with simple structures worthy of a modern democracy.
An independent governance, audit and compliance committee will be in charge of supervising the FIFA president and the entire FIFA organization to ensure good governance is implemented. It will, in particular, supervise FIFA’s processes -- for example, making sure that all decisions are taken following a proper democratic consultation process, that FIFA’s financial transactions follow a proper tender process for suppliers, and that the distribution of FIFA’s revenues are closely monitored and audited.
Moreover, the FIFA judicial bodies will be modernized. The Ethics Committee will be merged with the Disciplinary Committee to enable it to administer sanctions. Both the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee and the Appeals Committee will have to apply full transparency of procedures and full publication of decisions. Strict timing constraints with short but reasonable deadlines will be set to reach final conclusions on cases. Full independence from the Executive Committee and the Congress will be required for both committees.
Q: How must the business and social model of FIFA change?
Figo: FIFA is an association of federations and should remain like that. Its main objective is to develop football, meaning that FIFA’s ultimate goal is not to profit or generate revenues for itself but to reinvest in football at all levels.
Obviously that football popularity and media exposure give FIFA an extraordinary responsibility to be a credible and responsible organization so this is why I propose to take a good look into those fields.
See Wednesday's issue for Prince Ali bin al-Hussein's answers to our questions about his platform in the FIFA election.
