Blatter faces Grassroots criticism
”I have an announcement to make: I’m running for the presidency of FIFA in the election to be held on June 1 2011”. Sports illustrated journalist Grant Wahl has fathered the announcement, and is, on top of that, a strong advocate for a change in FIFA.
In a recent commentary on the Sports Illustrated website, Wahl suggests himself as a candidate for the FIFA throne and says that the election “desperately needs an outsider” as the current rival to the reelection of Blatter, Qatar’s Mohamed Bin Hammam “is just another FIFA insider”.
Furthermore he criticizes that: “Blatter is one of only two FIFA presidents in the last 37 years”, and further states that: “FIFA has as much transparency and credibility as the Mubarak regime”.
Wahls commentary is just another in a rising string of rebellion against Sepp Blatter's attempt to take the FIFA presidency for the forth term in a row.
Change FIFA
The grassroots organisation Change FIFA, founded by British businessman Oliver Fowler, is also working for a change in the FIFA head office. Launched before the December World Cup vote was held, the Change FIFA campaign advocates a democratic, transparent and open FIFA that returns the game to the people.
Change FIFA has floated two options - to form a new world governing body for football or to reform FIFA, which would require a combination of intense legal and political pressure alongside the current forces of mass public desire for change.
The Change FIFA campaign has already prominent followers, as the former England manager Graham Taylor, who backs the campaign in a BBC article, saying that: “There is a need for that organization (FIFA) to be more open and democratic than it is".
According to investigative reporter Andrew Jennings the only way FIFA will be reformed is from a "bottom up" rather than a "top down" approach using the grassroots potential.
He says, in the same BBC article, that: "I think the only answer is grassroots pressure up the feeding chain from the counties to the national associations and onwards to the FIFA Congress"
The FIFA presidential election is to be held on June 1 2011.