FIFA candidate Champagne files complaint against UEFA, Asia

ZURICH — FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne made a formal complaint claiming two rivals supported by continental governing bodies will have an unfair advantage at the vote Friday. Champagne urged FIFA election monitors Monday to cancel 20 extra passes for "observers" from UEFA and seven for the Asian Football Confederation to enter the election hall in Zurich. In a letter seen by the Associated Press, he wrote that UEFA and the AFC plan "to swamp the Congress hall with confederation employees able to access" voters. UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino and AFC President Sheikh Salman are seen as front-runners in the five-candidate contest. The other candidates are former FIFA vice president Prince Ali of Jordan, and South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale. Champagne, who has run his own campaign, said allowing extra accreditations would "betray a gross violation of the principle of fairness." "Moreover, the list of names of the persons benefiting from these accreditations reveals the presence of most of the members of these two candidates' campaign teams," wrote the French former diplomat, who was ousted from his job as FIFA international relations director in 2010. Despite 11 years working as a FIFA insider under Sepp Blatter, Champagne has seemed like an outsider in a campaign that includes two members from the Middle East, a commodities tycoon, and the spending power of wealthy European soccer. Champagne promised to pursue his complaint against "these unfair and undue privileges" if the three-member FIFA election panel did not act Tuesday. Potential breaches of FIFA election rules can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The vote of up to 209 FIFA member federations Friday will choose a successor to Blatter, as FIFA aims to renew itself after the biggest corruption crisis in its 112-year history. Sexwale ‘open to negotiations and alliances’ South African FIFA presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale said Monday he is a realist who is "open to negotiations and alliances" ahead of Friday's vote in Zurich. Sexwale is the first candidate in the process to suggest he could be interested in striking a deal. "What is important for me is I'm in the top five (candidates). But I am also still a realist and I'm open to negotiations and alliances," he told a news conference. Asked about his chances, Sexwale said: "It's like the Vatican, you never know what will come out. But at least I will have South Africa's vote because they told the world at a press conference (in October) that I was their candidate. "I guess they will vote for me because they said so but because it (the ballot) is held behind a curtain you never know for who they cast their vote." — Agencies