What FIFA needs is not reform but restructuring

Inside World Football

One thing that unites all the Presidential candidates is their promise that they can deliver a FIFA that will get away from the scandals of the last year and become an organisation fit for purpose. Yet reading their proposed reforms what is striking is how timid these proposals are. None of them go far enough. They will amount to cosmetic changes that will not produce the new FIFA we need.

Take for instance the much touted proposals of Jerome Champagne. Now it must be said that while Champagne stands little chance of succeeding his mentor Sepp Blatter he has given much thought to the issues of reform and for much longer than any of his rivals. But his proposals fall down because his starting point is all wrong. To recycle the old Irish joke of the traveller asking how he could get to his destination the answer comes back: I would not start from here.