Factional crisis hits FIFA

A campaign group set up to change world football’s governing body, known as “New FIFA Now’’ has been launched during a summit at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.
Insidegames, an online portal, on Thursday, said the group was made up of current Members of European Parliament (MEP’s) and a range of other sporting politicians.
It said the campaign was launched to alter how FIFA was run, amid ongoing allegations of corruption, bribery and deceit, ahead of its Presidential election in May.
The portal added that a member of the British Parliament, Damian Collins, a key member of the group, felt that there was no better time to change the governing body for good.
“There has never before been an attempt to bring together an international coalition of people from different institutions and organisations, whether it’s football, business or parliaments, who have seen FIFA’s image go from bad to worse,” the portal quoted Collins as saying.
It noted that in spite spite of having no current power, the group could prove influential in the Presidential run as they bid to rid football’s governing body of a miasma of difficulties.
The portal said that Michael Garcia, FIFA’s Chief Ethics Investigator, resigned in December, 2014 because his full report into alleged corruption was not fully published.
It said that the situation prompted Garcia to claim that his findings had been misrepresented.
The insidegames said that the unveiling represented the first group of its kind to actively explore ways to allay their concerns and fears about how FIFA was currently governed.
The portal also disclosed that Bonita Mersiades, a former member of Australia Football Association, stressed that time had passed for evolution but rather to change things in FIFA.
“We realised that the scale of the problem had become so great; it needed a huge response which we are trying to start.
“I think we have reached a tipping point and I hope we are giving confidence to more people around the world to join the call for FIFA to change.
“People tore down the Berlin Wall and it is time for us to do the same and build a new FIFA,’’ the portal said.
It, however, said that candidates needed to prove they have played an active part in football for two out of the past five years and that they required at least five nominations to officially enter the race.
The current President Sepp Blatter is seeking a fifth term in office and remains a strong favourite to lengthen a reign which began in 1998.