FIFA presidential candidate Jérôme Champagne has poured cold water on UEFA's exec committee's “unanimous” support for Gianni Infantino’s bid for the top exec job in world football, saying he expects individual European nations to vote differently.
Infantino’s campaign was given a boost last week, when the 53 European members of FIFA offered overwhelming support for the 45-year-old Infantino’s bid to replace the disgraced Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.
However Champagne, seen as an outsider in the FIFA presidential race, said, "Nothing is fully decided. You know that this so-called unanimous declaration of support they are never real. What we have seen in UEFA is very clear. ‘We have this, we have that,’ they said. Two hours after that Der Spiegel wrote a piece saying ‘It’s not true.’”
FIFA exec Champagne also pointed out that other FIFA confederations, which include the Asian and Oceania Football Confederations, would not be in tune with UEFA's thinking.
He added, “I never believed in bloc voting. I am absolutely convinced that the confederations really mean that FIFA should change. But they [the confederations] are not ready to put all their eggs in the basket of a FIFA which will be controlled by UEFA.”
Along with Infantino and Champagne, the other candidates are Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale and the favorite Sheikh Salman, the Bahraini president of the Asian Football Confederation. While the six individual confederations may support individual candidates, ultimately it is down to each of the 209 nations to decide who wins the FIFA presidential contest.
The FA, for example, is still holding discussions on which of the candidates to back. A strong indication of the way it will vote was given at the weekend when FA Vice-Chair David Gill told the BBC that Infantino, the secretary general of UEFA, was his personal choice to succeed Blatter.
Central to Champagne’s campaign is a focus on “rebuilding the link between FIFA and public opinion,” fighting the “growing inequalities in football” and modernizing the organization.
Champagne: “I am the only [one of the candidates] placing the issue of imbalance of football in the center of the platform. The other ones never talk about it.”
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
