Wednesday 30 December 2015 16:42, UK
One of the frontrunners in the FIFA presidential election wants to split football's governing body into two separate entities in a bid restore the beleaguered organisation's reputation.
Asian football chief Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said on Wednesday that FIFA's governance and business functions would be separated if he took over following the February 26 election, with a 'Football FIFA' responsible for governance and running of tournaments while a 'Business FIFA' handled all commercial and financial matters.
The proposal was one of several set out in Salman's manifesto, which also detailed his desire to increase the number of teams at the World Cup, ensure more representation of women at FIFA board level and the establishment of an "integrity and anti-corruption agency".
Salman also repeated his pledge not to take a salary if elected president and said he would have a non-executive role.
"Only by strictly separating the generation of funds and supervising the flow of all monies spent can we guarantee the rebirth of a new FIFA that is accountable and is a good corporate citizen that deserves everybody's respect," said Salman in the statement.
"When people around the world think of football - they should think of a sport. Not of a business. They should think of fair play - not of match-fixing, violence, racism, corruption, simulation, winning at all costs, or other negative things. And when people around the world think of FIFA - they should think of football, not of a video game. Or worse."
FIFA's 209 member associations will vote for a new president in Zurich after the previous president Sepp Blatter was banned from football for eight years by FIFA's ethics committee earlier this month.
"FIFA must be restructured top-down in order to remedy its present ills. Nothing short of a complete organisational overhaul and the introduction of stringent control mechanisms will allow us to re-launch FIFA in its entirety," added Salman, who said he could bring in experts from outside football to help with the recovery process.
He also promised an in-depth review of FIFA's senior management structure and vowed to listen to the organisation's staff.
"FIFA is not those 40-odd individuals who have been indicted, arrested or already convicted on various charges. FIFA is above all a 400-strong group of employees from 40 plus countries who have suffered from the mayhem caused by others only marginally linked to the organisation," he said.
"I shall not be micro-managing the organisation and nor will I play a role in day-to-day to operations.
"My focus will be to make FIFA deserving of corporate support by introducing structures and controls that generate the kind of trust we have lost in many quarters. Pretty PR talk will not remedy the failures FIFA has allowed to occur."
The other candidates for FIFA president are UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino, former FIFA deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne, Jordanian Football Association president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein and South African politician and businessman Tokyo Sexwale.
