They’ve taken the first steps it appears. The wide reaching reforms passed with only 22 no votes (the biggest change being the Executive Committee is gone to be replaced by a 36 member FIFA Council, which will include 6 women - but also a general secretariat to run FIFA’s business affairs, term limits and background checks for top officials, and increased independent oversight).
And Gianni Infantino has been elected the new FIFA President (I would have preferred Prince Ali, but at the very least, Sheikh Salman was denied - albeit it would have been amazing if Tokyo Sexwale had won, though I literally have no clue what he stands for). So good result all around.
No hyperbole to say this is the start of a new era for soccer.
I will believe that when I see it. My current prediction is that he’ll end up being just as corrupt as Blatter, only not as blatantly obnoxious about it. FIFA doesn’t rot from the head down, that’s merely a symptom of the entire structure being rotten.
But I too am sad about the withdrawal of Tokyo Sexwale. What a lost opportunity.
Though it seems that the reforms that were passed actually take power away from the President, meaning that no one will be able to control things like Blatter was able to do so.
I would’ve preferred to see Prince Ali too, his reform credentials were by far the best, though to be fair Infantino also stood on a platform of wide-reaching reforms and any president of FIFA would be insane to try and make it “business as usual” (even if there are still a lot of people in FIFA who would like to see this), so I’m not unhappy.
Kyoto fuckdolphin, as I like to call him (I know it is pronounced differently!), has by far the best name, but turned out to be a very weak candidate indeed.
