– says Jerome Champagne, FIFA Presidential candidate

WITH THE Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and its president Christopher Matthias still being one the of heavy criticisms for the state of Guyana’s football, Jerome Champagne believes that what the sport really needs is unity and a breath of fresh air. 

While to some Guyanese Champagne might be a stranger, the 56-year-old Frenchman is a popular figure in world football, having served in FIFA from 1999 to 2010.
However, these days Champagne is commonly known as the only man (so far) brave enough to challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency at the May 2015 FIFA Congress.
Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter, a 78 -year-old Swiss, is sitting at the helm of the world’s most popular and richest Sport for the past 16 years, having taken office in 1998 when he ascended to the presidency over former EUFA president Lennart Johansson.
Blatter announced in September of this year that he would definitely stand for a fifth term, a reversal of his previous insistence that he would stand down.
During the eleven years spent in FIFA, Champagne follows sport-political issues, relations with FIFA member associations as well as specific projects, such as the FIFA Centennial, FIFA’s relations with governments and the European Union including the defence of the specificity of sport at the EU, the win in Africa with Africa initiative.
FIFA’s support for Palestinian football, the improvements in FIFA’s relationship with FIFA Pro for the good of the governance of world football, the development of CIES Football Observatory and FIFA’s relations with the International Olympic Committee and other international federations are also under his radar.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_Champagne – cite_note-11
He is also credited for having contributed to the reelection of Blatter in 2002, so his input on Guyana’s football is one which is treated with grave importance.
“We need stability, because trust me, with the experience I have and the years I’ve worked in FIFA and after I left FIFA, when you have no stability at the top and more concerns between the leaders of football, you cannot have a strong national federation,” Champagne told Chronicle Sport in an exclusive Interview via Skype.
“So we need stability, we need a top league and that’s important. When I think of Football in Guyana and when you’re 150 something in the ranking, for a country like Guyana, that’s not normal,” the Frenchman said.
As a Presidential Candidate at the FIFA Congress, asked what he would do to help member associations like Guyana, Champagne said that on an institutional reform level, “you need to give back the power to the National Federations. As you know, the Football Federations belong to FIFA and FIFA belongs to the football federations at National Level.”
He added “The confederations play a big roll and are not members of FIFA; the Confederations are to FIFA like the English Premier League is to the English FA. But I want to give back the power to the federation at the national level”.
“Secondly, I want to increase funds for development programmes because FIFA has the financial assistant programme for US$40 000 a year and I want to increase it. I also want to create a specific programme for football federations in the Caribbean and Oceana.”
According to Champagne, despite the financial assistance given by FIFA in a number of areas to help its member associations, “a lot of people believe that when a Football federation or F.A is from a small country, they need less money but it’s actually because the country is smaller, they need more money because they are less private companies, their travelling costs will be more expensive – it’s the case of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana that I know well when they want to travel to participate in CFU competition its expensive”.
Meanwhile, football pundits in Guyana and regionally believe that FIFA and its Confederation; CONCACAF are equally to be blamed for the situation in Guyana given the fact that several letters and other correspondence were written to the hierarchy asking for their input.
But after two failed congresses and a call for the resignation of Matthias from office, both FIFA and CONCACAF have failed to directly reach out to quell the dilemma before further escalation.
Nevertheless Champagne said “It’s a FIFA responsibility to take care of the Federation and it’s very important that we know what’s taking place.
“I worked in FIFA for 11 years and a lot of things that take place in Guyana never reached Zurich so we need know more … the federations are members of FIFA and they have a right to go to their confederation to resolve a problem but it’s also FIFA’s responsibility to deal with issues in their federation.”

(By Rawle Toney)