Prince Ali’s all-star cast

He will need all the help he can get if he is to topple Sepp Blatter as FIFA president, and Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein may soon be able to call upon some of the biggest names in football to back his bid.

In the week that the head of the Jordan Football Association announced his intention to challenge Blatter at this summer’s presidential election, a campaign was launched yesterday in an attempt to provoke major changes at the top of the governing body.

Organised by Conservative MP Damian Collins — an arch critic of FIFA and Blatter — it aims to bring together players, executives, supporters and politicians under the slogan A New FIFA Now. A summit of those involved in the movement is being held at the European Parliament in Brussels on Jan 21, at which ideas will be put forward on how to achieve change.

Inside Sport has learnt that an invitation has been extended for Prince Ali to attend the meeting, for which big-name current and former players are also thought to have been targeted, including the likes of David Beckham, Gary Lineker — a vocal critic of FIFA — Eric Cantona and Thierry Henry.

Prince Ali’s presidency rival, Jerome Champagne, is confirmed as being on the guest list, along with Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the former head of FIFA’s technical committee who is also considering running despite being under investigation by its ethics committee over its World Cup corruption report.

Lord Triesman, who led England’s doomed bid for the 2018 tournament, is down to attend, as well as Bonita Mersiades, the Australia 2022 official who blew the whistle on allegations of wrongdoing before the vote to decide the next two World Cup hosts.

A good omen for Prince Ali’s presidency hopes is the involvement of another Australian in the campaign, the chairman of sports clothing brand, SKINS. The outspoken Jaimie Fuller has decided to turn his attention to FIFA after helping to oust Pat McQuaid from the top of the International Cycling Union (UCI).

McQuaid’s defeat by Britain’s Brian Cookson at the UCI election just over a year ago was the first time in almost 40 years that an incumbent president of one of the leading global federations had lost such a ballot.

Like FIFA, the UCI was beleaguered by corruption allegations in the build-up to the vote, although Blatter would appear to have a much tighter grip on power, having been re-elected three times during periods of similar turmoil.

Collins, who has repeatedly called for Blatter to quit, said: “People have had enough. I speak to amateur and professional players, fans, and mums and dads whose children play and love the game. It has reached the stage where FIFA is a laughing stock. We all love the game. But we all detest how it’s run.”

Collins has secured cross-party support for his campaign in the shape of Labour’s former sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe and the Liberal Democrats spokesman, John Leech.

“We don’t intend to talk about what is wrong with FIFA, as we all know what’s wrong,” Collins said. “The experience since the presidential election in 2011 — when we were promised things would change — shows that FIFA is incapable of reforming itself. But we also know that FIFA’s problems go much further back than that.”

Collins urged those wishing to support the campaign to sign a petition at www.newfifanow.org.

“We want to see football governed by people who make decisions and take action in a transparent manner, and who are held accountable in the best interests of the sport and civil society,” he said. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Ben Rumsby is a sports news correspondent with The Daily Telegraph