Fifa presidential election: Little hope for a brave, new, transparent governing body

We are about to discover which of five late middle-aged men, each from the ranks of the rich or else the super-rich, is to be the next head of world football

Fifa candidate Tokyo Sexwale did not respond to requests to take a stance on human rights concerns (AFP)

A dispute over transparent polling booths. They are asking us to believe that this week in Zurich puts us on a threshold of renewal, yet Fifa doesn’t want the see-through effect when its denizens step up to cast their vote for Sepp Blatter’s successor on Friday. Will anyone tell the world game’s governors that their reluctance to cede ground on this one just doesn’t look all that good?

There would at least be some succour if a game-changer was in the prospective presidential ranks. We are about to discover which of five late middle-aged men, each from the ranks of the rich or else the super-rich, is to be the next head of world football. Yet beyond all the platitudes about what they will do and what they will change, nothing we have heard is equipped to convince us that we are about to witness a phantasmagoria: someone who will come in and instantly hose away the stench of those Blatter years.

Another of the week’s spats has been provoked by one of the quintet pointing out the dubious human rights record of the country – Bahrain – whose royal family is providing one of his competitors. That’s unfortunate, since the Fifa employees who have slogged to create new statutes to limit the prospect of future palm-greasing have included a respect for “human rights” at the core of the philosophy. And ironic, given attempts to alert all five to human rights concerns.

NGOs including Human Rights Watch, Football Supporters Europe, Terre des Hommes and Transparency International Germany asked the five to commit to taking six clear steps in their first 100 days as president to put Fifa on the road to ensuring the World Cup and other tournaments “do not cause or contribute to human rights abuses and corruption”. Not one of the candidates signed up to the full range of pledges.

The response of Jérôme Champagne, a Blatter adviser for 11 years, was more positive than the others. His commitment to human rights was not exhaustive but fairly emphatic. Jordanian Prince Ali bin al-Hussein made no commitment to tackling human rights problems linked to World Cups in Russia or Qatar. Uefa’s Gianni Infantino did not commit to putting in place due diligence measures for future tournaments or to calling on Russia and Qatar to prevent human rights abuses linked to the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. Bahraini Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa said he would call on all hosts of the World Cup to prevent human rights abuses but removed references to Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 to the NGOs’ pledge cards. He also deleted mentions of abuses against women and LGBT people. South African Tokyo Sexwale simply did not respond.

It is a response which suggests that while Fifa has created the apparatus to remove bare-faced criminality from its money-spinning big event, the right to stage the World Cup is very much available for those with the money to make a splash and sell a story to the world which obscures the dismal lot of those at the bottom of the pile.

“There is no time to waste in taking action to stop human rights abuses linked to the World Cup in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022,” says Sylvia Schenk of Transparency International Germany. They can’t even make their polling booths transparent. We won’t be holding our breath.