The race for the FIFA presidency began this Monday, January 20, with the announcement of a first runner. Not the most expected. Certainly not the most installed either. But at least the earliest to declare. Jérôme Champagne, 55, former deputy secretary general of FIFA, officially made his candidacy in London at a press conference.
Former diplomat, who worked at FIFA between 1998 and 2010, until occupying the position of deputy secretary general (2002 to 2005), the Frenchman explained: “I am here to announce and launch my candidacy for the election to the presidency of FIFA in 2015." If he wins, he would become the first Frenchman to lead world football since Jules Rimet, the creator of the FIFA World Cup. Since his departure from FIFA, he has remained very close to the football world, notably supporting the Kosovo and Palestine Federations.
Presenting himself as a “reformist”, Jérôme Champagne constructed a campaign project in eleven points. Its priorities: modernize the institution and, above all, modify its governance. “I am campaigning for a more democratic and transparent FIFA,” he says. The Frenchman proposes in particular to give power back to the National Federations, which he judges today too often in the shadow of the Continental Confederations. He also wants the decision-making process to be modernized, in order to include certain growing forces in modern football, including FIFPro, the global players' union.
To date, Jérôme Champagne is the only declared candidate. But it shouldn't stay that way. Sepp Blatter declared very recently that he did not feel particularly “tired”, a roundabout way of making it clear that he still had the heart and the breath for a new mandate. As for Michel Platini, the boss of UEFA, presented as the first, and most serious, rival of Sepp Blatter, he should make his decision known after the 2014 World Cup.
