THERE is a global organisation that has more members than the United Nations (UN) -209 countries (the UN has 193).

It has no gun, no army, no nuclear weapon, in fact none of the world’s known precious mineral resources, yet it has a followership of humans probably unmatched by any other organisation or sect or single event in the world.

This followership cuts across all known human divides – religion, race, colour, education, economy and social status. It has become since its introduction to the world by the English well over a century ago the ultimate human equaliser.

This organisation’s only asset, its tool of mobilisation, its resource and, ultimately, its source of awesome power is so simple and so inexpensive that it boggles the mind and confounds the world.

It is a ball, a small inconsequential round leather object kicked around by the youths in every corner of the globe, watched by a majority of the world’s population and patronised by some of the world’s largest corporations.

This ball is played in a game called football, ‘the beautiful game’
The organisation that controls the game, how and where it is played, sets the rules, and deploys its resources is called the Federation International de Football Association (FIFA). This organisation that has existed for the past years has done a remarkable job in protecting the sanctity and purity of the game by not tampering too much with its rules and how it is played.

Indeed all the generations of the leadership of FIFA have done exceedingly well to protect the game from the vagaries of unnecessary cosmetic and unproductive change.

Indeed under different FIFA leaderships, the game has continued to grow and improve from strength to strength in all directions.
With the help of technology, the game has improved significantly – the balls are better, the playing fields are better, the rules have only been sparingly altered to improve the fairness in the game. Media coverage, which drives the followership and income derivable from the game has improved, and everything seems to be honky dory, until the human element of greed starts to rear its head.

FIFA, a private organisation by its charter has grown through the years to become a very powerful organisation, so much so that in my humble opinion, its president may easily be the most powerful president in the world.

The organisation for over a century has worked out of Zurich without the interference of any government, no matter how powerful in the world. FIFA’s events have become cash cows raking in stupendous wealth for the global body.

These are the two elements that have now become a big challenge to the organisation. The deployment of the power and funds of FIFA by the leadership has attracted criminal investigations by the U.S. and the Swiss governments.

The charges have created a massive scandal that has consumed several of the executive committee members that may have exploited the loopholes in the operations of FIFA and the immunity from scrutiny that the organisation may have enjoyed through the years to perpetrate serious financial atrocities.

The game itself is so powerful and its rules protected so jealously that there is really no threat to it in any way. Football’s purity, its simple rules, its players and officials, have been maintained and sustained through the years.

Indeed, the organisation itself has put in place a system that runs almost on automatic gear. The recent scandals that have engulfed the organisation have not impacted in any way on the game as played on the field and its general organisation!

So, come to think of it, the real problem where we stand today is with the leadership – the awesome authoritarian power it commands, the character and conduct of the leadership, the transparency and accountability of their operations the checks and balances in the system, the process of selecting them, and the use to which the enormous resources are utilised.

Those are the real issues and challenges confronting the global game today.

So, in drawing up a manifesto, the essence easily should not be to change FIFA. No, it has worked well all things considered except the humans that run it that have been distracted by the lure of money and the lust for power from using the games’ resources to drive causes that would impact on the games followership. The greatest game in the world should identify with the causes in the world that reinforces and compliments its status as the greatest game on earth.

Football, the game is a celebration of art and artists.

FIFA is the pilot of that celebration.
The pilot must reflect the game – simple, elegant, beautiful, fair, equitable, non-prejudicial, and credible, transparent, and with projects that are beneficial to mankind. To achieve this, the one single word that must never be compromised in the organisation is Integrity. Without it the entire structure will collapse as it is been currently threatened.

The good news is that whatever the world does now, the game will continue to thrive on the field of play, its structure well consolidated by generations of administrators, for which we thank them.

Once that is the case, the world must not be afraid to take the right decisions and reform the organisation called FIFA by addressing specifically the issues that have brought all to this opprobrium:

The conduct and character of the leadership; the process of selecting them; the checks and balances in place; the longevity of the leadership in power; the process of dispensing favours and sharing responsibilities.
Introducing term limits

Deployment of the resources of FIFA to causes:
Addressing these specific issues will form the plank of my manifesto looking at creative new ways of doing things without disrespecting the positive actions of previous leaders, bringing in more players into the fold of FIFA leadership, dismantling the existing cabal, creating checks and balances to reduce the power of the president, be more transparent and accountable to member associations;

And to disinfect all association members of the trickle down effect of FIFA’s immunity particularly from criminal investigations;

Make arbitration less expensive so that the aggrieved can easily go there and get quick justice;

Not protecting crime within member associations with the blanket of impunity;

Given the main actors more responsibility within the family and empowering them within members associations to sustain the traditions established at the top.

Football is a game, which brings everyone together, under one roof like no other event or activity in history.

A game so beautiful that over four billion people around the world watched the last congregation of its best teams only a year ago in Brazil.

The greatest aspect of this game is that it is so simple, so inexpensive, so basic, that its power continues to confound the world.

All what football requires to draw audiences is a ball and stage to play it on.  These are the least expensive items to provide… Every country, every community, every village, with a little effort can provide these two items, cheaply and freely, and the children can start to entertain and the audiences shall congregate and watch and celebrate man’s talent, individual mastering and artistry, collective team discipline and organisation, the ecstasy of victory and the grace in accepting defeat.