UEFA President Michel Platini is the "front runner to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president," but Prince Ali bin al-Hussein said that he is not the "right man" to clean up the world governing body, according to Matias Grez of CNN. Prince Ali said, "I personally respect Platini as a player and a president of the European Football Union; and we met and I listened to his opinion. But at the end of the day, the matter at hand is not personal. I do not think Platini is the right man for the new phase because this stage needs young blood, and minds which can understand the international needs -- not just the European ones." UEFA "refused to officially comment on Ali's opinion about Platini," but a
source close to Platini said he was "upset with the stance Prince Ali has taken." The source said, "After all the support that Mr. Platini and UEFA gave Ali during his
campaign, he does not understand this attitude from a man he used to
consider a friend" (CNN, 8/12).
TRULY INDEPENDENT?: SBS' Les Murray wrote FIFA announced this week that former IOC Dir General and "respected Swiss lawyer" François Carrard is to head up its independent reform committee. There is "nothing wrong with that." What "is wrong is that the committee he will preside over is hardly independent." Moreover, there are "some shady characters on it, some of whom have been part of the governing body while corruption was festering in its underbelly." Three members of the "so-called independent reform group" are on FIFA's current exec committee, "the most important organ this group is meant to reform." On the committee is Hany Abou Rida from Egypt, current member of the FIFA ExCo, who has been "a person of interest to Swiss prosecutors investigating the vote to award FIFA World Cup hosting rights to Qatar and Russia." Another is Constant Omari Selemani from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a FIFA ExCo member, one of Blatter's "biggest supporters and a man who accused The Sunday Times of racism for its investigations into FIFA corruption." Then there is "the biggest name of all, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, of the Kuwait royal family." He is a "close ally" of Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman, who "engineered his appointment to the FIFA ExCo, an opponent, by the way," of Australia's membership of the AFC, a "fierce supporter" of Blatter and a man who did not "take kindly to the opposition to Qatar hosting the World Cup" (SBS, 8/13).
