Jerome Champagne calls for Fifa voting reform

The Frenchman warned that the majority of Fifa’s members would not accept it if the game fell under control of what he described as the G7, meaning wealthy European federations and clubs.

Former Fifa official Jerome Champagne. — Reuters

Zurich — Former Fifa official Jerome Champagne said he is considering whether to make another run for the presidency of soccer‘s global governing body and called for whoever gets the job to heal the rift between Europe and the rest of the world.

The Frenchman, who was a diplomat until he played an official role in the 1998 World Cup in France, warned that the majority of Fifa’s members would not accept it if the game fell under control of what he described as the G7, meaning wealthy European federations and clubs.

A key point of Champagne’s reform programme is for members of the powerful executive committee to be elected by the 209 member associations at a Congress rather than by the continental confederations as currently happens. He said he also believes the president should be able to choose a number of the members in the same way a country‘s leader might choose a cabinet. Champagne repeated the message from his previous campaign, that the key issue facing the sport is the unequal distribution of wealth.

“We have the 20 wealthiest clubs of Western Europe, having a cumulative turnover of 6.2 billion euros ($6.94 billion), while more than 100 federations around the world survive with less than 2 million,” he said. “We have one percent of the clubs, federations, leagues and players, who have everything.”

Fifa is in danger of becoming dangerously split with most European associations voting for Blatter’s rival Prince Ali bin Al Hussein at the last election and Blatter pulling in votes from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

“If Fifa is taken over by someone who is perceived as at the service of the wealthiest part, this guy will have problems because we need regulation and redistribution.” — Reuters

“They don’t want a G7 running the game, maybe (they will accept) a G20; any guy who is perceived as running a G7 has no chance.”