Election ‘11, part two: The Corrupt Challenger?

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

It would be difficult to call Mohammed Bin Hammam of Qatar an outsider as the FIFA incumbent’s sole challenger in the race to lead the world’s largest sport’s governing body. A member of the FIFA Executive Committee since 1996, he’s been the Asian Football Confederation president for the past nine years. He took office not long after the continent hosted its first ever World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

Under his presidency, the AFC Champions League was restructured into the format that we watch today. He is part of the FIFA Goal Bureau, providing financial support for member associations, and was an instrumental figure to bringing, somewhat controversially, especially in light of recent news, the Middle East’s first World Cup.

As for the FIFA presidency, Bin Hammam’s campaign centres around change. But is it really change for the better or for the sake of something different, or is it neither a change nor better?

Some of that change includes radical restructuring of the way FIFA and their Confederations, which are technically not a part of FIFA, is run. Bin Hammam wants to increase the notorious FIFA Executive Committee to 41 members, transforming it from an Executive Committee to the FIFA Board, something that doubtless will make it, at least appear less elitist without necessarily making it less so. He also wants to decentralise the FIFA administration, not to the individual member Football Associations, but to the Confederations, in consequence, giving Confederations more power in the game than they would have ever had in the history of association football. Financially, Bin Hammam wants to double FIFA member donations to 500,000 USD while increasing the funds in the FIFA Goal Bureau to 1 USD million for developing nations in their quest to develop the game at all levels.

Onto the game itself, Bin Hammam is also tapping into the calls, especially after the 2010 World Cup, for the use of innovation and technology. He supports both goalline technology and adding two additional assistant referees in each game. This is something FIFA, and Blatter, a long time to warm to, even only in terms of discussing it officially, but even on the informal side, this still remains a very polarising debate.

Finally, and possibly one of the most important election manifesto points, Bin Hammam, if elected, would establish a FIFA transparency committee. This point is crucial especially in the corruption rife FIFA.

It is clear that on paper, Bin Hammam has some very ambitious goals. But let’s take a closer look at these promises.

Bin Hammam’s desire to take power away from FIFA and put it in the hands of the Confederations, that, as mentioned before, are scarcely free from corruption, could seriously put off member nations, who under Blatter have had some measure of protection from the Confederations, which are not official members as such within the FIFA organising structure. FAs can rely on the fact that they are protected by the relative distance of FIFA, who, while being the one with final approval in key decisions undertaken by individual FAs, are far less hands on than Confederations are. The Confederations are more closely involved in and know more about the political and social conditions of power brokerage in football, and with that knowledge have the ability to hamper executives of FAs on their own football industry. Confederations having more power means that the FAs have to fall in line with the Confederation as well as to FIFA, even to an administratively weakened FIFA. Bin Hammam’s vision also puts off key influential Executive Committee members.

The FIFA Transparency Committee, while an admirable and necessary body, does not take away from the questionable relationships that Bin Hammam himself, has forged throughout the political and football spheres, in order to afford himself the sort of power of AFC Head. His relationships in the AFC with questionable politicians in the Asian region cannot be overlooked. And under his leadership, the FAs under the AFC umbrella have not been scandal free, and this cannot be completely disassociated from his leadership, despite the fact that, it is FIFA that has the final say in controversial decisions such as the Philippine FA leadership struggle and the current Indonesian FA’s problems, and this extends to the 2022 World Cup bid from Qatar.

What cannot be overlooked, is that while Bin Hammam seems to have a bit of a revolutionary spirit himself in this election season, as head of AFC for the past nine years, no such revolution has occurred with the AFC. Under his tenure, it has been one of the least transparent organisations in the world and has been hardly scandal or corruption free. This is something one of his main critics, Peter Velappan, former AFC head honcho himself, has stated as a major flaw in Bin Hammam’s candidacy.

When he announced his candidacy for football’s top job in Kuala Lumpur in March, Bin Hammam believed that he had a good chance at securing the elections. However, he may have alienated most of his target votes by mismanaging his campaigns, skipping out on crucial potential marketing moments, as well as with the general tone of his election. And, of course, with most Confederations already publicly siding with the incumbent, he has to rely on the fact that some member FAs may either have a change of heart, or decide to vote independent of the Confederations.

While a change in FIFA would do us all good, and while on paper Bin Hammam’s ideas and visions are a breath of somewhat stale air, at least seemingly leaning, albeit slightly in the direction push for further reform, it would seem that the only credible opposition to Blatter’s far too long tenure as head of the football’s governing body may not be all that credible. This is particularly pertinent in the most recent concrete proof in the allegations of bribery and corruption for the World Cup aimed at Bin Hammam and another (perhaps former) Blatter ally, Jack Warner, and Blatter’s recent comments about not being completely opposed to reviewing and holding a new vote 2022 World Cup bid, which puts Bin Hammam’s reputation, and Qatar’s win, in jeopardy. What do you think of both Bin Hammam’s abilities to govern, or his chances at the job?