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FA Chair Greg Dyke Has 'Doubts' About FIFA Presidential Candidate Sheikh Salman

FA Chair Greg Dyke said he has “his doubts” about Bahrain's Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa's suitability to become the boss of FIFA given the country’s links to human rights abuses while a former FIFA adviser has slammed football's world governing body’s attempts at reform and said a new leader will be no better than Sepp Blatter. Alexandra Wrage, the former FIFA adviser who quit over what she deemed lackluster governance reforms to the governing body, was speaking on a BBC News program about the FIFA scandal, alongside Dyke, former FIFA presidential candidate and footballer David Ginola, and U.K. MP and FIFA campaign reformer Damian Collins. Wrage, who compared the running of FIFA under Blatter to that of the Mafia, said, “We think about the reforms that is happening there now or we hope is happening there. But a lot of the infrastructure is still the same. A lot of the lawyers who were there then are still there, accountants who were then are still there. It’s hard to imagine how we are going to move from the just unbelievable creative scandals we have seen to something better than that with that whole family structure still in place. I don’t think there is any question that there hasn’t been a cultural change. There hasn’t even really been the opportunity for a cultural change there has been such chaos. I don’t think we have seen the end to the disruption there and you have to reach the bottom of that before you can start rebuilding if in fact you have the right equipment to rebuild.” Asked about whether a new leader could reform the tarnished body, she said, “I think it’s going to be more of the same with the rules written the way they are to ensure that only an insider can take over, then we start with a real problem. We are not going to see anybody leap up and demand immediate sweeping reforms because they won’t get elected with that platform. They are having to be very gentle and conciliatory. We are not getting a lot of transparency around funding. I think we are completely on track for more of the same.”

HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES: Dyke, who is standing down from his role as FA chairman in the summer, said he had doubts whether Sheikh Salman, the favorite to replace Blatter, was a suitable candidate given Bahrain’s links to human rights abuses. Dyke: “I think there are issues about human rights yes. I think there is an issue about someone from Bahrain. No one denies that there were violations of human rights involving sportsmen and footballers that went on four years ago. No one denies that. The question is does it matter whether or not he was involved or can you have someone from Bahrain running world football given what happened there four years ago? I personally have my doubts.” It is alleged that Salman was complicit in the detention and torture of footballers and other sportsmen during his time as head of the Bahrain FA. Salman has previously told the BBC that the allegations were “nasty lies.” Collins said Salman had not been clear over his alleged links to human rights abuses in Bahrain. The FA is expected this week to back rival candidate Gianni Infantino for the FIFA presidency, with the election taking place later this month.
John Reynolds is a writer in London.

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