FIFA ‘shaken to its core’ by scandal, says presidential hopeful Prince Ali

FIFA has been “shaken to its core” by scandal after scandal, one of the main contenders to inherit Sepp Blatter’s crown has said. A day after UEFA President Michel Platini was questioned by Swiss authorities over a FIFA payment, presidential election rival Prince Ali bin al-Hussein on Saturday touted himself as the safe choice to rid the governing body of corruption. The Jordanian prince said FIFA has been decimated by the scandals. Blatter became a formal subject of a criminal investigation into football corruption on Friday.

The need for new leadership that can restore the credibility of FIFA has never been more apparent.

Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein

Blatter was questioned over a 2011 “disloyal payment” of 2 million Swiss francs (about $2 million) to Platini that was supposedly for work carried out at least nine years earlier. Platini, who was questioned as a witness, denies wrongdoing, but his credibility as a reforming force has been damaged. FIFA must decide whether to suspend 79-year-old Blatter, as it did with his right-hand man, Secretary General Jerome Valcke, after he was implicated in a scheme to sell tickets for the 2014 World Cup on the black market. At the same time, FIFA is trying to rush through reforms to its governance in a bid to regain the confidence of the football world.

We have to accept that changing FIFA is not a matter of choice; it has already changed, shaken to its very core by the scandals that have decimated our governing body and cast a cloud over the entire organization.

Prince Ali

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