Champagne launches bid for Fifa presidency

Sepp Blatter's former right-hand man Jerome Champagne officially launched his bid to stand for the Fifa presidency on Monday, firing the first shot in a potential 15-month battle for control of the world's richest and most influential sport. Frenchman Champagne (55), a former diplomat, worked at Fifa for 11 years between 1999 and 2010 and is a former deputy secretary general of world soccer's governing body. 

The presidential elections will take place in June 2015 with Blatter expected to stand for a fifth term and facing a possible challenge from Uefa president Michel Platini for the role second only to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee in global sporting importance.

Champagne, speaking at the London site where the English FA, the world’s oldest, was founded in 1863, ended months of speculation by declaring his bid on a platform of reform based on his far-reaching 20,000-word document “What Fifa for the 21st century ?” published in 2012.

He said his election slogans: "Hope for Football, Hope for All" and "Re-Balance the Game in a Globalised 21st Century" emphasise his message of curbing the polarisation of the game into pockets of elite clubs in Europe's richest leagues. In an interview with Reuters, Champagne said he was advocating four major changes to modernise the organisation: "It needs to be more transparent and more in tune with the modern world. "We need to redress the imbalances in the world game, we need to make Fifa's executive committee more democratic and transparent, we need to introduce technology to assist the referee and his assistants and we need to better handle the globalisation of the sport. At the very least I want to open up the debate so these issues are examined properly." 

Since leaving Fifa in 2010 after being forced out by political infighting, that for once, he was powerless to stop, Champagne has been working as an international soccer consultant in troubled regions such as Kosovo, Palestine and Israel and Cyprus. Although he is outside Fifa he says he is eligible to stand for the presidency as he has the backing of at least five FAs and has been active in the game for at least two of the last five years.

Fifa, comprising 209 member nations, more than the United Nations, organises the world's most popular sport but under Blatter's long presidency has suffered a series of crises focused around financial scandals and mismanagement. Champagne was at Fifa during many of Blatter's woes but was forced out of the organisation after political infighting six months before the World Cup started in South Africa in 2010.

Blatter is only the eighth president in the organisation's 110-year history. He said he will announce his intentions before this year's Fifa Congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil in June.

Platini has also been linked with a bid for the presidency but has not yet declared his position while current Fifa Secretary General Jerome Valcke and executive committee member Angel-Maria Villar-Llona of Spain have also been mentioned as possible runners.

Pele has endorsed Champagne’s bid, saying he supported the Frenchman’s vision for the future of world soccer’s governing body on Monday.

The Brazilian legend said: “I cannot stay away from a debate which is so important for the future of football and thus, I support Jerome Champagne and his vision.”

Pele (73) said the pair first met in the 1990s when he was Brazil's Minister of Sport and Champagne was the First Secretary at the French Embassy in Brazil, and they developed "a sincere friendship." He added: "Football today enjoys a lot of success but also faces many problems requiring a strong and democratic Fifa with a vision in favour of everyone, and a governance which is both universal and modern. Fifa must continue doing what has been done well in the past, taking its competitions and the World Cup to all countries and also continue its development programmes, but has to adapt itself to the 21st century and to the world of today."

Jerome Champagne: key ideas

• Quotas for foreign players — Champagne is a fan of the Premier League but believes it is limiting opportunities for English players.
• Using technology for offsides and other key incidents.
• Implementing rugby's rule where only the captain can talk to the referee with a free-kick advanced 10 yards for any dissent.
• Sin-bins with referees able to show an orange card for offences between a yellow and a red.
• Abolition of the 'triple punishment' rule where a player who prevents a goalscoring opportunity in the penalty areas concedes a spot-kick, is sent off and also suspended.
• Leagues should distribute more money to the grass-roots — but supports Premier League's mechanism of splitting its money between the member clubs.
• All Fifa presidential candidates should take part in live debates on TV and in front of the six continental confederations.
• The Fifa president should have more power and be able to appoint his own 'board of directors'.
• The power of the confederations should be reduced, with Fifa executive members elected by the national associations.
• The salary of the Fifa president and leading officials be made public.