Rogers: Is the guy replacing Sepp Blatter as FIFA head just as bad?
As Sepp Blatter was unceremoniously given the cold shoulder by FIFA on Thursday, sent into a 90-day exile that might as well be 90 years, the winds of change started to sweep through soccer’s governing body.
Yet for all the positives to come from the decision of FIFA’s ethics committee, there was one element of the process that ensured that the organization that runs global soccer will remain a laughingstock for a while, at least.
Step forward Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, who on Thursday found himself suddenly with the keys to the FIFA kingdom, ushered in to power because FIFA’s regulations mandate that if a president is removed or suspended, his senior vice president moves into the top seat.
Hayatou will struggle to convince anyone he is a reformer or comes to the position with a clean pair of hands. The career resume of the 69-year-old former international basketball player and middle distance runner is filled with the sort of shenanigans that have caused soccer politicos to be so derided in the public eye.
One of them came just a few months back. As head of CAF, Africa’s soccer confederation, Hayatou was facing a mandatory surrender of power, with rules stating that no one over the age of 70 could hold office. No problem there, Hayatou simply altered the statutes and carried on.
In 2011, he was embroiled in a corruption scandal and disciplined by the International Olympic Committee for involvement in bribery case. That, apparently was fine for FIFA, who allowed Hayatou — runner-up to Blatter in 2002’s FIFA presidential election — to carry on.
In reality, there is little to worry about from Hayatou’s appointment. The FIFA presidential elections will take place in February next year and in the first paragraph of his acceptance letter, Hayatou made it perfectly clear he would not be seeking the permanent ticket.
Soccer has to put up with being led by a member of the old guard for a while longer, but as a trade-off for Blatter being out of office, it seems like a small price to pay.