LONDON, (Reuters) – The time has come for a “new FIFA” following years of scandal and corruption, say campaigners who are meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels later this month to discuss how to make it happen.
The summit on Jan. 21 has been organised by British Member of Parliament Damian Collins, a long-time critic of the way soccer’s world governing body has been run.
Delegates will include FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne, Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the head of the technical inspection team for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, and the former chairman of the England FA, David Triesman.
The announcement comes three days after FIFA executive committee member and Asia vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan declared his intention to run as a reformist candidate against incumbent Sepp Blatter, the 78-year-old Swiss who has been FIFA president for the last 17 years.
“People have had enough,” said Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe and a member of parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
“I speak to amateur and professional players, fans, and mums and dads whose children play and love the game. It has reached the stage where FIFA is a laughing stock. We all love the game. But we all detest how it’s run.”
Collins says the Brussels meeting will be a first step to “making a new FIFA a reality”, adding, “It’s also the first of its kind where politicians, players, fans and corporations will come together in a campaign for change.”
Other European politicians and football personalities will be at the summit, Collins says.
“We don’t intend to talk about what is wrong with FIFA, as we all know what’s wrong,” he said.
