Election ‘11, part one: Bin Hammam v Blatter

By Soraya Soemadiredja, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Part One of Three Parts in AFR’s FIFA Elections coverage.

All over the world, on every continent, it’s election fever. You just have to turn on any news channel, open any website or read the paper to know that. FIFA, who frequently behave like a nation unto itself, like many other political entities, also have scheduled elections for the first of June. With all the international turmoil in the world, and the wrapping up of many football leagues for the summer on the sporting front, anyone would be excused from having forgotten this little date, despite the near constant carousel of sporting news headlines that relate to a “FIFA scandal!” which is infinitely more interesting than “FIFA Elections” as a headline.

Under fire from critics from all nations about a great deal of things ranging from lack of transparency, lack of technological progress of the game, lack of support for the Women’s Game and emerging nations, corruption scandals befalling many Ex-Co members and everything involved with the World Cup bidding, hosting and organising, football broadcasting rights worldwide and every topic in between. The election of a new president may not have any impact on improving the conditions of the world game for the most marginalised or the biggest issues surrounding it.

While you and I have no say in this FIFA business, we can all agree their decisions have greatly impacted the way our beloved sport is played, and it is interesting to see how football politics works these days. This Election: ‘11 series is here to remind us how things work in that place they call “The Home of Football” and what the deal is with the two horse race between incumbent Joseph “I own football” S. Blatter and challenger Mohammed “let’s throw bills at 'em” Bin Hammam.

A huge portion of criticism and cynicism comes from the fact that Bin Hammam and Blatter are cut from the same cloth. These days their campaign strategies may include blasting each other and criticising every point on their opposition’s election manifesto with a “better” one of their own, but it has to be said that they were allies in the past and they are Executive Committee colleagues. Both Blatter, as FIFA head, and Bin Hammam, as AFC head, have had to work together to, a) weather the storms directed toward the organisations they lead, b) to stay in power, and, c) have associated with the same questionable figures in world football, business and politics.

Article 23 of the FIFA Statute states that

1. Each Member has one vote in the Congress and is represented by its delegates. Only the Members present are entitled to vote. Voting by proxy or by letter is not permitted.

And this explains why the two candidates have been racking up the frequent flyer miles (unless that is not how it works on a private jet) and killing a few forests in the process of securing the winning votes. They’re wining, dining, politicking and wheeling and dealing just like any respectable candidate to any elected official position. They’re like our presidential candidates and legislative representatives, except FIFA isn’t a democracy, and they’re not afraid to flaunt their wealth.

They’ve both been making appearances in order to outline and emphasise what their candidacy will stand for to crucial member states. And, despite the fact that members, and not Confederations, vote, that doesn’t mean that confederations don’t have a say on the electoral outcome, with many confederations considering, or having a general unwritten policy, of agreeing on which candidate for whom they will vote. And if the words of the confederation heads and various football association heads can be trusted, it would seem that the members of football’s governing body all seem very resistant to change.

Under Michel Platini, the man to whom Blatter plans to pass on the baton of FIFA president, crucial members of the UEFA community, the Executive Committee, announced their unanimous (and unsurprising) support to Blatter, which all but seals the deal for him in those regions, especially Russia, who was awarded the 2018 World Cup just last December, and a firm vote from Russia is crucially influential in how some member states will vote. Of course, UEFA have sealed the deal for Blatter in all but one loudly protesting case. England has decried both candidates, stating that under the circumstances and corruption allegations on the part of both candidates, they would abstain from doing so. This is, of course, a shame for Bin Hammam, who was counting on the disgruntled English FA for a vote in his favour.

Across the pond CONCACAF are filled with Blatter allies, including Ex-Co member and questionable human being, Jack Warner, has used their influence on the other members of this confederation to vote for Blatter as a bloc. Southern neighbours CONMEBOL have also emphatically declared that they were fully committed to keeping Blatter in the FIFA presidency for another term. CAF seem to be on the same track. Despite Bin Hammam’s promises to augment football aid to the continent, Blatter has made strong ties in the region throughout his presidency. And if that’s not enough, we cannot forget that Blatter did bring football’s biggest sporting tournament to Africa after all.

The OFC has also thrown their weight behind Blatter, claiming that as president, he has “had significant impact on the development and popularity of football across the pacific”, according to the president David Chung. Part of this may have to do with Blatter’s stewardship of the GOAL Programme that brought development and assistance to specific developing national associations, seven countries of which benefited from the Programme’s inception.

The AFC, so large there are sub-Confederations within it, may be split. Bin Hammam has been pushing for the support of the Central and South Asian Football Federation, and West Asian Football Federation is his home turf. On the other hand, in recent AFC Executive Committee elections, he managed to unseat a few members in the ASEAN and East Asian Federations with his own allies and this may be crucial for Blatter, although, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, some of these allies are also Blatter’s allies.

So in terms of numbers, it doesn’t look good for Bin Hammam but it seems like everything’s coming up roses for Blatter. But while Confederations have made their statements, on the 1st of June, the 208 members will still have to physically cast their vote for either Blatter or Bin Hammam.

But it doesn’t matter who wins if we don’t know what they’re all about. And as stated before, critics have questioned whether either of these two are prepared to go on to make radical, if any, changes necessary as both Blatter and Bin Hammam are part of an institutional system that is traditionally resistant to both change and criticism. So, to help you answer the question of whether this means anything to the you or I or world football, or it’s really just two different sides of the same coin, we’ll have to look more closely at the candidates’ election platforms to see if they’re really any different from each other or what FIFA’s been doing.