FIFA presidential candidate Michael van Praag said he would ensure full disclosure of a report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups if he is elected on May 29.
World soccer’s governing body has been under pressure to publish former FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia’s report to help shed light on what happened during the turbulent process for the tournaments awarded to Russia and Qatar.
Van Praag, the president of the Royal Dutch Football Association, wants to extend the size of the World Cup to 40 countries, open regional FIFA embassies to assist development and give more money to member associations.
Photo: AFP
The 67-year-old reiterated his previous promise that he would only serve four years if elected. He is one of three candidates taking on FIFA president Sepp Blatter in the election at the FIFA Congress in Zurich, Switzerland.
Van Praag said his primary concern would be to leave soccer in a better state for the next generation.
“We must ensure that football continues to be for everyone,” he said at the Dutch soccer headquarters on Monday as he presented his election manifesto in the town of Zeist. “We see that the stream of negative reports about our FIFA continues. We see reports that are quashed. We see films by and about FIFA which cost 20 million euros [US$22.4 million] to produce. And we see continuing stories around the allocation of World Cup.”
“That’s not my world football body, that’s not the way the sport to which I owe so much should be portrayed,” he said. “Normalization, that’s the key word. The organization must go back to being plain normal.”
He said he would insist on transparency as part of the normalization process and would make clear details of the Garcia report, FIFA finances and his own remuneration if elected. He also wants full details to be publicly disclosed after every major FIFA meeting.
FIFA has endured a nonstop pounding following its decision in 2010 to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.
Corruption allegations surrounding those votes led to Garcia’s two-year-long inquiry into the voting process before he quit as FIFA’s chief investigator in December last year saying that there was no credible leadership at the top.
In his plans for a 40-team tournament, Van Praag outlined an added place for each confederation and a return to the old system where the winners were also automatically through to the following edition as holders.
Van Praag said if elected he would increase FIFA’s annual grant to member countries from US$250,000 to US$1 million and give added money for infrastructure development to countries seeking help.
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