Jordan’s Prince Runs for FIFA Presidency

By OnIslam and News Agencies

Jordanian royal Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, left, with FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Photo Credit: Reuters

Amman, Jordan – Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al Hussein declared he will run for the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) presidency next May, challenging the incumbent president Sepp Blatter whose reign has been marked by a series of corruption allegations.

“I am seeking the presidency of FIFA because I believe it is time to shift the focus away from administrative controversy and back to sport,” the prince said in a statement cited by Agence France Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, January 6.

“The headlines should be about football, the beautiful sport, not about FIFA.”

The FIFA vice president, Al Hussein, said that his decision came after consultation with his FIFA colleagues, who encouraged him.

“This was not an easy decision. It came after careful consideration and many discussions with respected FIFA colleagues over the last few months,” he said.

Besides being the FIFA vice president for Asia, Al Hussein is the head of Jordan’s Football Association and the founder of the West Asian Football Federation.

In case he wins, the prince will be the first FIFA Arab president and the second from outside Europe.

The 39-year-old Prince is not the only rival of Blatter, FIFA’s former director of international relations, Jerome Champagne of France, announced his candidacy too, a few months ago.

The prince, who is married to Rym Brahimi, a former CNN journalist, became the youngest member of the FIFA executive committee after being elected its vice-president for Asia in 2011.

Change

Amid corruption allegations surrounding the world football’s governing body, Prince Hussein believes that his candidacy is a step toward change by preventing Blatter from winning a fifth term of FIFA presidency.

“The message I heard, over and over, was that it is time for a change,” the prince said.

“The world game deserves a world-class governing body — an International Federation that is a service organization and a model of ethics, transparency and good governance.”

Over the past 17 years, FIFA has been engulfed by scandals of bribery allegation and corruption.

The most recent was the corruption allegation of Russia and Qatar’s successful bids to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The prince, who is a graduate of the prestigious military academy Sandhurst, must be nominated by at least five of FIFA’s 209 member before a January 29 deadline.

“FIFA exists to serve a sport which unites billions of people from all over the world, people of differing and divergent political, religious and social affiliations, who come together in their enjoyment of ‘the world’s game’,” the prince said.

The Muslim prince is a champion of lifting hijab ban in women’s football, and he repeatedly warned that Muslim women would be driven away from soccer fields if the football’s governing body decided to ban the wearing of hijab in playgrounds.

In a 2012 FIFA meeting, Prince Ali offered the case for allowing players to use a Dutch-designed Velcro hijab which comes apart if pulled.

He said that the wearing of the Dutch-designed outfit will remove safety concerns of wearing hijab on pitch.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on OnIslam.net and is reprinted here with permission.

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