May 12 – Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, two-time losing FIFA presidential candidate, has emerged from his relative silence over recent months to denounce the regime of Gianni Infantino in the wake of events at this week’s FIFA Congress in Bahrain.
Prince Ali, beaten 15 months ago in the election to replace Sepp Blatter, says Infantino has failed to change the way the organization is run.
At FIFA’s annual congress on Thursday, Infantino declared that the new FIFA was “a transparent organisation” and a “deeply honest organisation”.
But it doesn’t look that way in the light of some of Infantino’s decision-making and the ongoing corruption scandal that has plagued his organisation.
“I think it is fairly obvious that a lot of things have not changed,” Prince Ali told reporters on the sidelines of the Congress.
“I am not going to judge anyone but what I will say is that the system, the way business is conducted is the same. I don’t see the refreshing change, the openness, the transparency that everybody talks about really taking effect.”
Prince Ali, head of the Jordanian FA, believes the decision not to renew the mandates of FIFA’s two leading ethics officials who had brought down a series of officials involved in corruption was a mistake.
“Obviously, their term ran out but, having said that, they are in the middle of conducting their cases and what this is going to do is delay the process.
“To be honest if it is not broken, don’t fix it. It reminds me of things that have happened in the past. Things cannot be conducted behind closed doors, everyone wants to know what is going on.”
“We are in a crisis, you can’t have a FIFA president who says everything is fine, as we have heard before, when obviously it is not.”
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