The Federation International of Football Association (FIFA) will have a vacancy come June 2015.

Like many top politicians, Sepp Blatter, the current president of FIFA, is unwilling to give up power and vacate his seat. FIFA is Blatter's life, but finally he is being challenged. With the election for president set for next June, not one person within the 209 nations of FIFA has dared put his or her name on the ballot.

But an outsider, the former French diplomat Jerome Champagne, confirmed last week that he would run and challenge the way that FIFA governs world soccer. Of course, Champagne has nothing to lose. His manifesto, written at the start of this year when he first declared himself as a candidate, is primarily aimed at national soccer associations. They are the power. One nation, one vote, directly elects the president every four years.

Champagne talks of making FIFA more receptive to the 209 member associations, more democratic, more in step with changes around the world. He promises them more say - and more sway - in relation to the rich European clubs. He treads lightly, diplomatically, around the issues that should bring down the incumbent Sepp Blatter.

In fact, Champagne sounds like the current president when he uses phrases littered with the words "fairness" and "transparency"... (same words politicians use before elections). We are still awaiting the findings, if ever they are released, of the FIFA independent investigator Michael Garcia after his two-year inquiry into the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

On the other side, Sepp Blatter says that the best man to clean up FIFA from corruption is himself. While he has not been personally implicated in any wrongdoing so far, he is tainted by the fact that he has led the organisation when that corruption allegedly took place.  Yet no one has been able to lay a hand on him. At first it was thought that Michel Platini would be the obvious candidate to succeed him. However, Platini's hands are tied.  He will seek another term with UEFA next March. And he knows that he could not dislodge the solid bloc support that Havelange, and then Blatter, have received for four decades from the 50 plus African nations

The question now remains... will Blatter continue as president of FIFA after the next vote? Or will Champagne's aspirations to unseat him come true?

Jos Edmond Zarb

Birkirkara