Day -855. WorldCup2018.
This Fifa election is getting really juicy. Well, as juicy as any other political race. But this is football, you say? Sure. It's all about football.
Today Gianni Infantino received the backing of the European Clubs' Association, which represents the biggest clubs in Europe. They see him as the ideal person to lead Fifa, except they don't agree with his plan to have a 40 team World Cup and they don't have a vote in the election.
In other news a group of Arab human rights organisations have come out in support of Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa, saying there is no truth in the Western media's allegations that Sheikh Salman was involved in the imprisonment and torture of Bahraini athletes and footballers. They are proud of the Sheikh's "clean record" and that no allegations have been proven. They also quoted from a Sky Sports interview with Sheikh Salman where he said he can guarantee that no footballers or athletes were targeted. Interesting choice of words. So maybe he's not denying that he was involved in the torture of non-athletes, or that he maintains that he didn't know that those who were tortured were athletes or footballers.
The Associated Press interviewed Sheikh Salman today. His latest angle is that there should be a "consensus candidate". He believes that all the candidates should agree who the winner is going to be and encourage all the member associations to back that one person. Interestingly, he aims most of his idea of democracy at Europe:
"I hope that Europe looks at it from an organisational point of view, and not an individual, on what is best."
He is looking to disrupt the European vote, while also using what Russia's Sports Minister/Fifa Executive Committee member Vitaly Mutko said recently that there should be a pre-election deal to "unite behind one man". Last week Russia said they would be voting for Infantino. Now, previous Fifa elections (including World Cup host elections) have shown us that politics played out in backroom meetings are not a reflection of what is said in public. Russia may be playing an interesting game here. Or, Sheikh Salman, may be completely off the mark.
The other consideration is the Prince Ali factor. It seems unlikely that he will win. However, he does seem to have the backing of a few disgruntled African associations, who will not go along with their confederation's backing of Sheikh Salman. And, if the reports are true, Japan and Australia will not follow the Asian confederation vote for Sheikh Salman but will vote for Prince Ali. These votes will take away from Infantino's and Sheikh Salman's first round vote totals. If no candidate gets two-thirds of the vote in the first round, all the candidates bar the first two are eliminated. The expectation is that Infantino and Sheikh Salman will be the two to move on. At this point the associations who voted for Prince Ali will have to vote for one of these two. And this is where the alliances come into play. The Asians will undoubtedly want to ensure that they get all the Asians on the Sheikh's side and also the Africans, based on the recent development agreement between Asia and Africa. There is however one little twist. Sheikh Salman and Prince Ali do not have a very good relationship. In fact, it is reported to be anything but good. Sheikh Salman was only reported to have entered the race after Michel Platini was suspended and he worried that Prince Ali was to become the favourite.
This is all very intriguing, but not for anyone naive enough to believe this is about football.
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