Prince who could be FIFA's king chats to TWG

Jordanian Prince Ali bin Al Hussain recently announced his intention to challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA Presidency.

Prince Ali bin Al Hussain has high hopes he can win the FIFA Presidency and make change for the good of the game (Getty Images)

While the prince is in Australia to attend the Asian Cup, TWG’s Scott McIntyre sat down to discuss everything from FIFA reform and World Cup re-counts, to his love for an English Premier League veteran.

Why did you take this decision to run for FIFA President?

I think there’s a consensus from a lot of people within the football world that we need to evolve the organisation and make a positive change and have an opportunity to continue to develop things in an appropriate way.

Having said that it was a bit difficult for myself in the sense that it’s a very challenging job; I have two young children and a family and so on, so it wasn’t very easy for me to do it but at the same time after consulting with everyone I decided that I’m willing to do this to help progress the sport in a proper way and why not?

But you could lose everything?

Well, we’re committed to the game. If you look at it in a different way at the end of the day I know it’s a very big challenge because there has never been a national association president or an FA president who has actually taken the top role at FIFA and I think that’s the way things should be for the future, and I’m willing to do it and it’s a great responsibility to have somebody that comes from the actual congress do that because we deal day-in and day-out with the real realities of football and that would be a quantum change in terms of the sport. It’s the idea of representing everyone.

There’s obviously a belief that you can win, otherwise you wouldn’t do it.

Of course, I have total faith in the football world and that people will be optimistic. In the coming couple of months I’m looking to sit down and talk to all member associations and to listen to them first. I’m not coming here to dictate how things will happen; I have my ideas and programs that I want to implement but I have to hear back from my colleagues; what their concerns are, how they views things and take it properly.

What are the key elements of change as you see them?

There are many angles to it, in terms of top level management at FIFA, we have to have good and proper administration that serves the game, that serves our players, our fans and everybody and we’re there to work for people at all levels of the game. At the same that I do believe that there is a lot that needs to be done in terms of development, there are so many possibilities, opportunities to progress in football, whether it’s women’s football which has a great growth area, grassroots, development in all the age groups as well and I think that we should be confident that we can do that. It’s not just simply about marketing but also about our youth and how we progress. We have to give confidence also to sponsors and everyone who has invested and I think now is the time we should be doing that.

You talked of confidence. Do you think sponsors are pulling away from the game because of the current climate?

I think that everybody who is a stakeholder in the game needs to feel confident in FIFA and that’s what I want to do. I want to bring back that confidence in everybody who is involved in our sport. We all love it, it’s the most popular sport in the world and there’s a duty to really make sure that happens.

Is FIFA facing a serious threat? Can it survive if Sepp Blatter wins and things carry on in the same vein as the past 20 years?

I’m looking at the organisation to make a real change and that’s why I’m putting my hat in the ring and that’s what I’m focused on and I think we can honestly make that change in a proper and appropriate way – it’s not a matter of what’s been done before but how we go into the future. We have a lot of things that need to be addressed and reform is crucial. We have a lot of things that I would have liked to have seen implemented, such as Mark Peith’s recommendations for reform and Michael Garcia’s report, and so and at the end of the day we should have nothing to hide. FIFA, as an organisation, tends to be a bit secretive. Let me put it that way.

You’ve shown distaste down the years for the political games but now you have to be involved in that. How does that sit with you? Well, again, it’s out of a sense of duty, respect, and a love for the sport, so I’m happy to take it and to do it and I think it’s time now that we make change in a good, positive way.

When did you decide? What triggered this? It’s not ideally something that I wanted to do, but I got a lot of encouragement from many people around the world who really care about the sport, not just from officials but also from players, from people who are interested in the sport and who really care, and so after a lot of thinking and so on I decided, ‘OK, let’s go. Let’s do it’. It’s not something that I want to do for a long time but I really think it’s a duty to all football lovers around the world to bring this organisation back to where it should be; to be respected, and to have it in a good light. And I’m willing to do it. And I’m willing to commit to that.

We assume that you will have the support of UEFA. Where else will your support likely come from, especially in light of the AFC decision to support Blatter? Look, this is for the entire world and it’s up to our members, our congress, to decide at the end of the day. I’m going to go and hear from them, and discuss with them in the coming months, to listen to their ideas, to share my ideas with them, and based upon that we will move. And I think that maybe it’s a different approach, but in my opinion it’s the right way. It’s how I’ve always dealt with the world of football, before even coming from my own country and being elected there, as the president of our FA, that’s the way we have to build consensus.

If you were elected would you look at setting a limit on the number of terms a President can have?

There are a lot of ideas and thoughts that I have, but it’s a little bit early for me to elaborate on that because, as I said, I’m going to talk to our members and I will come out with a programme before the election in good time, where I will highlight everything.

But I have to respect our member associations and listen to their opinions as well, because at the end of the day I’m not doing this for myself, I’m not coming in and trying to dictate to them, they are the ones who will decide the future of FIFA and I will be the conduit for that.

Sheikh Salman spoke recently of being disappointed that you didn’t first seek an endorsement from the AFC. What do you make of that? This is a matter for every single member association. It’s a FIFA election, not a confederation election, and therefore I have total respect for everybody’s opinion. I’m not going to play politics. I do understand that there are also elections within our confederation coming up and I want to avoid that, and when the time comes and everyone’s comfortable, then we’ll talk about real football and real work and I’m not going to get sucked into any politics at this stage.

If you were elected would you order a re-opening of the bid processes for the controversial 2018 and 2002 FIFA World Cups? Is that something you consider important to do? I was one of the first to have asked for the Garcia Report to come out, and I do believe that we should be totally transparent in that respect. Regardless of anything I hope this would happen before I’m elected, to be honest.

You obviously have a very understanding wife and family. It’s a big role you’re taking on, isn’t it?

It is but I think that I have good support in that respect and that’s very important on a personal level. At the end of the day I have my kids who are so proud that their father is involved in the sport – obviously the important things for them are a little different – they are worried about trying to meet Messi and Ronaldo and so on, that’s how they view it.

But it’s such an important sport. It’s for the whole world, and regardless of anyone’s background and so on it can be such a positive force for health and well-being and to bring countries together and for competition and I would love to see football go to much better places and progress in the way we all aspire.

Do you have any specific views on the way that the release of the Garcia Report was handled? I have asked, as have other members of the executive committee, to have the report published. Obviously there are technicalities involved and that’s fine, but my position is that, simply, the world needs to know.

We made a big deal out of having this investigation in the first place but you cannot do that and then shut the door. Again, with Mark Peith, for example, we brought him in to look at how to reform the organisation. He made these recommendations and they were not implemented and I think that’s extremely wrong. Why would we do that in the first place?

Are you afraid for the future of the sport should there not be change whether it’s yourself or anyone else? I think that change is inevitable but I’m here to work for a positive change and to really get back to the basics and to use FIFA in a positive way. If I’m elected I’m going to have a real program where we really roll our sleeves up – a 10-year program for the organisation where everybody is a part of it and ourselves, as the executive, we’re there to implement that program.

I’m looking for an outcome where everybody can have confidence, from our players to our fans and all the way to sponsors and we deserve it. All football fans across the world deserve that as well.

But are we actually going to talk about football here, not just politics?

OK, how do you fancy your country, Jordan, and their chances? I have total faith in our team. I think they have a good fighting spirit. I respect our coach, Ray Wilkins. He’s chosen a younger team for this (Asian Cup) tournament because he wants to work towards building for the future which is actually quite brave of him and I’m happy with that. They call us the dark horses but we should make a good impact, you never know but it’s going to be tough.

Your personal connection with football – you’ve been quoted as saying you’re an Arsenal fan. Did you support a club with Jordan? Who did you grow up supporting? I can talk about anything but this, you’ll get me in trouble. That’s the one thing I have to keep secret.

Are there players or teams you enjoy watching? OK, I am an Arsenal fan but I enjoy watching a lot of teams. Aside from Jordan I’m an Argentina supporter and that goes back from the 1980s growing up and watching those great teams.

So Arsene Wenger out or in, should he go? As a team manager he is one of the best around the world, honestly. What’s he’s done, especially when he first came in how he changed and brought in the atmosphere of Arsenal was amazing and I think he’ll continue to do so. But, especially, his loyalty to the club is something that I respect a lot. It’s not a matter of going from one club to another, he has a true loyalty to Arsenal and that’s a little bit of the football we knew from growing up. It’s a nice thing. I wish him the best of luck and always support the Gunners.

The Asian Cup is still relatively new to supporters in Australia but other nations have a much longer involvement. Tell us about the prestige of winning the Asian Cup for a country.

I think it’s huge. In Asia we have a little bit of a handicap because we only play our tournaments every four years, whereas other confederations such as Africa and others they play every two years so they have a little bit more of an advantage. But at the end of the day we have to have as much competition amongst each other as possible and that will only improve ourselves on our national team level and a reflection of that will be our performances in world cups. So, the more competition we have the better.

So, do you think the Asian Cup should be every two years then, like the African Cup of Nations?

It’s a debate I’ve been having with the Asian Football Confederation and I understand there are issues in terms of marketing and what have you but there are other ways that we can sort of fill the gap.

Instead of having the Asian finals every four years maybe every two years or in between we could have a kind of competition between the different zones in Asia so we could have a new competition which basically fills the same criteria.

A little bit like the FIFA Confederations Cup but for our continent itself and that might be helpful as well so you could have East, South, Central, West you know the top two teams and have another competition. But we need much more competition amongst ourselves, that’s the only way we can improve.

What do you think about the expansion of the Asian Cup to 24 teams from 2019? That’s an interesting idea. I think for a lot of teams who might not regularly have the chance to participate in the finals it’s an opportunity on the one side. From the other side we just have to be careful because it will be an extra burden on host countries – not every country can host 24 teams.

These are all things that are in the pipeline and suggested but again, it’s difficult right now to make a judgement on it but also incentive wise – to make it to the last 16 is important.

I also view the fact that the play-offs themselves are part of the competition. If you take a country like Jordan, for example, it’s very important to be able to host teams and to be able to travel to other countries as well so if the play-offs are limited in that respect it could be a little bit not as good for the development of the sport.

Is the AFC too big and unmanageable in its current state? No, I think that’s one of the beauties of the AFC. That’s a wonderful opportunity and we can be a real symbol of things in the world we live in. We can have real positive interactions but I think the important thing is that, across Asia, we have to have faith in ourselves. We have so much investment in other confederations outside but we have to have faith in ourselves and take advantage of that. It’s such a diverse and beautiful continent that we should see it as a good thing and an opportunity rather than a negative.