LONDON: FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein believes the scandal-hit organization will struggle to replace sponsors and be damaged financially if Sepp Blatter remains in charge.

Five of FIFA’s top 14 sponsors decided in recent months not to extend their deals, leaving a void ahead of the high-profile qualifying draw event for the 2018 World Cup in Russia in July.

None of the departing sponsors, including Sony and Emirates airline, spoke out publicly against world football’s governing body.

But Prince Ali of Jordan has used his FIFA campaign manifesto entitled ‘A FIFA Worthy of the World’s Game’, which was launched on Monday, to express concerns that corruption allegations around FIFA are putting off commercial backers.

“The damage which is being exacted upon ‘Brand FIFA’ has financial implications,” the FIFA vice president said in the manifesto. “Sponsors have begun to vote with their feet. If drastic action is not taken urgently to restore the image of our governing body, we can expect revenues to reduce and, in turn, monies available to national associations to also go down.”

FIFA said in January it was in “advanced negotiations” with potential partners for the 2018 World Cup, but no information on new sponsors have been announced since then.

“We should have a situation where sponsors are not only willing to come back but we should have sponsors fighting to sponsor FIFA,” Prince Ali said from Cairo, where he is attending the Confederation of African Football (CAF) congress.

“Obviously I would like to see [the sponsors] back but we also like to see other options as well. It is important to have an organisation that has a good reputation that sponsors feel totally confident in.”

FIFA revenue topped $2 billion last year, adding $91 million to its reserves, which now stand at $1.523 billion after the World Cup in Brazil. “FIFA is riding on the success of the World Cup,” Prince Ali said. “We could gain so much more if there was more faith and more trust in how FIFA is run.”

Prince Ali echoed his rivals by offering to redistribute more of FIFA’s funds to the 209 national associations, but he also guaranteed to help fund national stadiums in countries without them.

Prince Ali is one of three candidates trying to stop Blatter being re-elected for a fifth, four-year term on May 29 along with Dutch FA head Michael van Praag and former Portugal international Luis Figo.

BLATTER’S FIEFDOM

Ali accused Sepp Blatter of turning the presidency into a personal fiefdom and said an unfair system of patronage had taken root under the Swiss.

“National associations have to feel that it’s not a matter of an executive president going and supporting national associations on an ad-hoc basis, but that they have their rights, they own this association and that they should get the support they need across the board in a case-by-case fashion,” said the Jordanian royal.

Ali’s manifesto contains several thinly veiled swipes at Blatter, including claims national associations have become dependent on his “personal approval “and a charge that World Cup revenues have been distributed “at the whim of the FIFA president”.

He also warns that “drastic action” is required to restore the world governing body’s credibility following corruption allegations over the decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

When he launched his campaign in February, Ali spoke of a “culture of intimidation” within FIFA and he believes the fear of losing favour may yet influence national association representatives when they vote in the election.

“Obviously there is that fear. I have to be honest about that,” he said. “The reason being is that many national associations around the world really depend specifically on FIFA funding, even though I don’t believe it’s where it should be in any case.

“Their fear is that there may be punishments in that respect even down to confederations levels, where all of a sudden things are not going very well for them.”

He also delivered a harsh warning on the future should Blatter be voted into power for a fifth term.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2015

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