FIFA: A hotbed of conspiracies and plots

By Ignacio Naya, dpa

Instead of calming down, FIFA is getting more conflictive every day. World football's governing body is a hotbed of conspiracies and plots, against the background of the battle for the organization's presidency in 2015.

From the recent democratic reforms to the suspicions about awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, everything which happens at FIFA is connected to the battle between incumbent president Joseph Blatter and his big rival Michel Platini, the president of European body UEFA.

FIFA's congress in Sao Paulo, which will take place Tuesday and Wednesday, just before the start of the World Cup in Brazil, will be just the latest episode in the increasingly tense confrontation between these two figures. 

Information recently published in the British media cast further suspicions of corruption on the December 2010 voting process for Qatar 2022.

According to the The Sunday Times, Mohammed bin Hammam of Qatar, a former vice-president of FIFA, paid out massive sums of money to other football leaders in order to buy support for Qatar's hosting bid.

Former US district attorney Michael Garcia, given the task of investigating by FIFA, announced that this report would be complete by Monday. It will be sent to FIFA's ethics committee after the World Cup.

After admitting that he himself voted for Qatar, Platini is the principal political victim of the wave of criticism about the Qatar decision. Meanwhile, Blatter managed to distance himself from the decision, calling it "a mistake" to hold the World Cup there in summer when the temperature could reach 50 degrees celsius.

"I don't know who is behind all this," Platini told French sports daily L'Equipe, adding that he did not regret voting for Qatar. "I think it was the correct decision for FIFA and for the world of football."

L'Equipe suggested that not only Blatter might be behind the anti-Platini campaign but also Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Sunday Times and television channels including BskyB and Fox.

According to L'Equipe, Murdoch is dreaming of a fresh vote on the 2022 host and a victory for the United States, one of the countries which lost out to Qatar in 2010.

Also, L'Equipe added: "Murdoch is worried about the Qatar World Cup being switched from summer to winter," which is one of Platini's ideas, because it would then overlap with US sporting events such as NFL and NASCAR.

Unlike Blatter, who is aiming for a fifth term as FIFA president, Platini has still not publicly expressed his desire to head FIFA. The battles of recent months might actually persuade Platini to drop the idea of being a candidate, according to some sections of the media.

This would open the door for fellow Frenchman Jerome Champagne, former director of external relations for FIFA and Blatter's right-hand man for many years, to be Blatter's rival in the election. 

Blatter already sees Champagne as a rival, even though Champagne admitted recently that he would little chance against the current president. In any case, Champagne is not exactly a friend of Platini, and one of his proposals is to reduce the power of UEFA.

Therefore, new names have suddenly emerged as possible leaders of the European rebellion against Blatter. Michael van Praag, president of the Dutch football federation, and his German counterpart Wolfgang Niersbach have been mentioned as possible candidates against Blatter.

"I heard and read about something like this but these are just rumours without any basis Niersbach recently told dpa. However, the German federation president did not rule out some kind of anti-Blatter move from the Europeans if the latter actually announced his wish to be re-elected president at the FIFA congress. 

Meanwhile, the proposal to limit the number of terms of office of the FIFA president, as well as a limit on his age - which was debated at the 2013 congress in Mauritius - has been put on the back burner, relegated to point 12 at the Sao Paulo congress.

After suffering the "treachery" of his general secretary and heir apparent Michael Zen-Ruffinen at the 2002 congress in Seoul, the elections for FIFA president were postponed to a non-World Cup year so as not to distract attention from the tournament.

Nonetheless, with the eyes of the world on Sao Paulo - where the World Cup will kick off on Friday - the 64th FIFA congress promises to be a show in its own right.

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