Shaikh Salman Wants to Split FIFA in Two

(ATR) Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa launched his campaign platform by calling for FIFA to be split into two entities to govern football.

The Asian Football Confederation president suggests a "Football FIFA" responsible for all football governing issues and organization of events and a "Business FIFA" tasked with handling all commercial,financial and funding matters.

"Only by strictly separating the generation of funds and supervising the flow of all monies spent can we guarantee the rebirth of a new FIFA that is accountable and is a good corporate citizen that deserves everybody’s respect", he said in a statement.

"FIFA must be restructured top-down in order to remedy its present ills. Nothing short of a complete organizational overhaul and the introduction of stringent control mechanisms will allow us to re-launch FIFA in its entirety.

"FIFA today is a genuine Phoenix project: under my leadership, we shall employ all professional means to lift the organization out of its ashes and guarantee a solid lasting and successful rebirth".

Shaikh Salman is vying to replace the disgraced Sepp Blatter, banned last week for eight years for signing off an illegal payment to Michel Platini. His four rivals are Jerome Champagne, Gianni Infantino, Prince Ali Bin al Hussein and Tokyo Sexwale.

His campaign platform website is www.shaikhsalman.org.

Non-Executive President, No Salary

As AFC boss, Salman is understood to be a hands-off president who prefers to delegate jobs. Around the Rings is told that he is not often at Asian football’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Echoing this management style, Salman plans to employ the support of external experts if he secures the FIFA hot seat at the election on Feb. 26. He says the head of "Football FIFA" must be a top-class executive "who does not necessarily need to have a football pedigree but is someone who also has the expertise of a turn-around manager".

The Bahraini prince vows to conduct an in-depth review and assessment of FIFA’s entire senior management structure.

"FIFA is not those 40-odd individuals who have been indicted, arrested or already convicted on various charges. FIFA is above all a 400-strong group of employees from 40+ countries who have suffered from the mayhem caused by others only marginally linked to the organization," he said, pointing to the fact that no member of FIFA’s staff outside of its executive.

Salman the ethics bans for Blatter and Jerome Valcke, who remains under provisional suspension amid a probe into allegations of his involvement in a World Cup ticketing scam, are "definitely not representative of FIFA’s employees who are doing an amazing job under dire circumstances".

In launching his manifesto for a new FIFA, the Asian contender vows "to reunite the employees of all levels, listen to them and learn from their collective and individual experiences. I shall lead by delegationand with a strong emphasis on participation. The days of solitary diktats are over".

Salman will be a non-executive president of FIFA if elected and he is committed to financial transparency "of relevance to the public" including the salaries of top management.

"I won’t be taking a salary because I shall not be micro-managing the organization nor will I play a role in the day-by-day operations," he said.

"I consider the president’s job to be one that develops strategies and sets objectives, whereas all operational responsibility will have to rest with those who run the daily business," Salman added saying everyone must be "fully accountable for their actions" including members of the FIFA Council – the new-look expanded executive committee that is part of FIFA reforms – the new president and all senior and mid-level departmental heads.

"Accountability, or rather the lack thereof, is one of the key problems that have led FIFA into the mess it finds itself in today."

Financial Transparency Pledges

Salman said he would further expand FIFA’s annual financial report to include "minute details of spending, as opposed to nebulous positions that cover vast sums of money".

"What we must do, is introduce expert control and outside professionals in all areas where conflicts of interest, nepotism and corruption have allowed misconduct to raise its ugly head. FIFA as a whole is certainly not a rogue organization, because such an allegation would mean that all of its 400+ professional staff and all of its 209 Members are criminals.

Those who take that view are seriously mistaken and harbour a specific and destructive agenda, it seems," he added.

Commenting on how he will grow football worldwide through the distribution of funding, Salman proposes ‘Development based on Individual Need’, versus the ‘one-for-all’ approach he labels the current policy. "We must teach members to fish instead of handing them a fried fish for dinner," he said.

On FIFA’s current sponsorship crisis resulting from the corruption scandal that has engulfed the federation this year, Shaikh Salman his focus will be "to make FIFA deserving of corporate support by introducing structures and controls that generate the kind of trust we have lost in many quarters. Pretty PR talk will not remedy the failures FIFA has allowed to occur."

"I shall dedicate my time and energy to get this done swiftly and lastingly, joined by a top team of external and existing professionals by my side. That is what I stand for and that is what I am certain I can deliver if elected", Shaikh Salman underlined.

Written by Mark Bisson

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