Now a Jordanian Prince is riding to the rescue of the embattled Swiss. But Blatter’s hopes of re-election may yet be scuppered by Qatar, of all countries.
Chung Jong-Moon was unseated on Thursday by the Prince in question, Ali Bin al-Husain of Jordan, as FIFA’s Vice President in a surprise election result. The South Korean lost by 25 votes to 20, and with it his hopes of challenging Sepp Blatter for the FIFA Presidency.
Is al-Husain a true football man? According to the Prince, he ran because he ‘loves the game,” said in a campaign video with the passion and meaning of a broken pencil. Among his pledges are greater roles for women’s football, despite most of his principal supporters such as Saudi Arabia and Oman being virulently anti women’s rights, and not having a women’s game to speak of. More pertinently perhaps, power over Asian football is now firmly in the hands of the wealthy royal families of the Middle East, who have about as much enthusiasm for football as the average man has for being repeatedly punched in the face. With this, the South Korean/Japanese axis of power in Asia is firmly pushed to the side, despite a more genuine love for the game in that part of the region.
And what of Al-Husain? He claimed to want transparency, openness and integrity in FIFA, though this is confusing, given that if this were a genuine claim it is unlikely he would have been able to win the vote. As Kuwait’s Sheikh Al Sabah said after al-Husain’s election: “I can confirm that the 25 people who voted for Prince Ali today will vote for President Blatter at the FIFA Congress because Blatter deserves to continue as FIFA president.”
25 voters supporting al-Husain also supporting Blatter’s re-election bid, and in doing so ousting the one serious contender considering taking him on. Coincidence? I think not. If Al-Husain wants transparency and openness, it would be interesting to know precisely why the exact 25 people voting for him on Thursday are also going to support the current FIFA president’s election bid.
Jong-Moon has been an independent voice railing against FIFA and Blatter for years from the inside. He supported Issa Hayatou’s failed attempt to beat Blatter to the presidency in 2002, and intended to stand against Blatter next year to reform FIFA, but now the only candidate who can displace the Swiss is the Qatari Mohammed Bin Hammam. Given FIFA and Blatter’s comfortable alliance over the years with Hammam, who helped Blatter win the Presidency in 1998, and as a thank you were duly delivered the rights to host the 2022 World Cup, it is hard to imagine that Hammam would stand against Blatter.
As a result, the man many dub the “enemy of football” is set to win another election unopposed and sweep to another term in the presidency. Unless that is, Bin Hammam decides to run against Blatter. It was suspected that in return for being given the 2022 World Cup, the Qatari would resist the temptation to challenge him. This week he indicated that he had not decided whether to run or not, and was tempted by the prospect of putting himself forward. The suggestion seemed to put Blatter’s nose out of joint, as he responded by dismissing Bin Hammam’s chances of success.
“You don’t need to be a mathematician, when President Mohamad said yesterday that he supported Dr Chung, If he supported him and he lost, then it shows he doesn’t have a majority in his Congress. Deduct from that what you will.”
On that, Blatter may be right. After all, the current President knows better than most about the importance of having a strong base of support (and how to finance that base). Given the Qatari ability to conjure unlimited sources of wealth as if from nowhere, Bin Hammam may be able to bankroll enough support to scupper Blatter’s hopes of winning the May election. And what is in no doubt is that if he decides to stand, most of the football world will be cheering on the Qatari bid this time.
