Nigeria Content Online

At 61, Mohammed Bin
Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation, knows his quest
for the FIFA presidency, up for grabs on June 1 in Zurich, is the last
throw of the dice for his career.

Seeking to topple
the politically-savvy Joseph Blatter, incumbent president of FIFA for
13 years, and its general secretary for 17 years before that, is an
extremely tall, some say impossible, order, even with the immense
wealth at the Qatari’s disposal.

“If I do not go for
what I believe today, there will be no other chance for me. I cannot be
going for this seat at the age of 70,” Bin Hammam confessed to me a
week ago, during an exclusive chat at his Kairaba Hotel suite in
Banjul, capital of The Gambia.

“FIFA is a great
organisation and many people have been touched by it in one way or the
other, because our sport is the most popular in the world.” “However,
FIFA has been facing too many accusations about corruption, even though
I have not seen any corruption within FIFA. We need transparency and
more teamwork [within the executive committee], which is missing.”

But Bin Hammam’s
15-year stretch on the FIFA executive committee, playing a key role
within it, leaves him with very little room to play the reformer’s
card, as he is the ultimate insider, I tell him.

Not surprisingly,
he strongly disagrees. “Having been a member of the Asian Football
Confederation for eight years before I became president, I know, from
my own experience, that if you are not in the leading position, you
cannot influence the major decisions.” “For sure, I have raised my
voice so many times [in the FIFA executive committee] over the last 15
years and have opposed the president within the four walls of our
meeting rooms, but without being at the top, one cannot make the needed
changes.” “I never thought of challenging Sepp Blatter, as I have been
with him from the beginning. But he told us that he only wanted two
terms. But those two finished and he asked for and got a third term and
now wants a fourth. It looks like things are not going to end
anywhere.”

Travelling to The
Gambia, not exactly one of world football’s premier destinations, Bin
Hammam sought the votes of FA bosses from the region, who met under the
auspices of the West African Football Union (WAFU), Nigeria being a
conspicuous absentee at this event.

“I am here to
campaign amongst friends and brothers. I have conveyed my worries and
problems to you and always tried to find joint solutions to our
problems,” he told the WAFU delegates.

But the decision of
Bin Hammam – and the other Asian members of the FIFA executive
committee – on July 6, 2000, to vote for Germany as the 2006 World Cup
host, instead of South Africa, severing a longstanding football bond
between the two continents, left a particularly sour taste in African
mouths.

When I confronted
him seven years ago in Malaysia, on what many, including CAF president
Issa Hayatou, saw as a betrayal of that alliance, Bin Hamman did not
express regret over his choice.

“The four [Asian
members of the FIFA executive committee] left the voting room with
clear consciences. We made a decision that was in the best interest of
world football.” And the passage of time has done nothing to alter his
view.

With Blatter and
Joao Havelange, his predecessor, spending a total of 36 years in the
presidential chair, many have called for an insertion of an eight-year
limit, consisting of two terms of four years, into FIFA’s statutes.

“Frankly speaking,
I agree with that,” Bin Hammam says, “because the game has developed so
much and I think a president should be able to achieve his goals within
that period.”

For Bin Hammam’s
thoughts on the controversial award of the 2022 World Cup to his
homeland of Qatar, his response to widespread allegations of his “undue
influence” in Africa and his deeper feelings on Blatter, read next
week’s ‘Point Blank’ for the final part of this special.