AFP, Zurich :
The battle for the FIFA presidency has turned into a gruelling round-the-globe marathon for the five candidates but observers say they are avoiding the real problems facing the scandal-infected world football body.
With Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa and UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino leading the pack, many will descend on an African congress in Rwanda on Friday and quickly move on to Miami for a meeting of north and central American soccer nations.
There will be more air miles to cover in the race to succeed the disgraced Sepp Blatter at a February 26 election in Zurich.
There are no opinion polls, but with the 79-year-old Blatter forced into exile, the result is uncertain, experts said.
Prince Ali bin al Hussein a former FIFA vice president from Jordan, Tokyo Sexwale, a South African tycoon and politician, and Jerome Champagne, a former FIFA executive from France, are considered outsiders however.
All have released manifestos calling for a cleanup at FIFA, reeling from the arrest of top executive members on corruption charges in the United States. But the detail is lacking.
“The candidates cannot go too far otherwise they will alienate key voters like in an American election,” said Jean-Loup Chappelet, a specialist on sports organisations at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
“Most are continuing the promises of riches to national members rather than addressing the true, and desperate, challenges that currently FIFA faces for survival,” Patrick Nally, a pioneer in international sports marketing, told AFP of the campaign.
“They are all playing lip service to the membership and not wanting to be in any way controversial. In effect it is a very dull and very disappointing presidential election with no charismatic leader in sight.”
Most of the manifestos mirror recommendations made by FIFA’s own reform committee which calls for greater transparency.
