Fifty-one year old former Trinidad & Tobago Footballer David Nakhid played 35 Internationals and scored eight goals for T&T between 1992 and 2005. The mid-fielder also played professionally in Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Lebanon, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates.
Nakhid, who runs the ‘David Nakhid International Football Academy’ in Lebanon, now has his sights set on the Presidency of FIFA in February’s election to replace the outgoing 79-year-old Sepp Blatter, who on June 2, resigned amidst FIFA’s corruption scandal, which saw officials, including former T&T football administrator Jack Warner, accused by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of wire fraud and money laundering. Blatter held the position of FIFA President since 1998.
The elections will take place on February 26, 2016, at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
Nakhid and his Campaign Secretary Josann Leonard (team Caribbean) met with Head of the Normalisation Committee of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Clinton Urling at the Guyana Marriott Hotel yesterday.
A press conference was held in the conference room of the impressive Hotel and the Trinidadian, who needs five nominations before October 26 to move forward, will be hoping that after yesterday’s talks in Guyana, he will garner the support of the Urling led GFF during his five-month campaign period.
“Now what we need to do is become more pro-Caribbean rather than pro-UEFA or pro-Asia, it doesn’t mean we’re anti-anyone but we’re pro-Caribbean in the sense that we understand our true value in this global football world. We understand what we bring to this process, and it is not a reference for a vote as it has been in the past. We then become a reference for true consultation. People then come down to Guyana and really ask you ‘well what do you need’ in tangible terms, not in promises.” Nakhid said.
“I am extremely confident of securing the votes since I have lived in the Middle East and played in Europe but wanted to come out of our Federation,” Nakhid informed.
“And I think once that is done we can then try to attract support from other parts of the world, but it would be useless to enter a campaign where I can’t even come out of my confederation. I think once that is done, I think the Caribbean people will get a better sense of our message when it is placed on that global forum and the rest of the world,” he added.
Nakhid, who says he knows what it feels like to come from the Ghetto and playing on rough, bumpy fields as a little boy in Trinidad, made his intentions to compete during a Radio show recently in Antigua, said that real change in World Football won’t happen if there is no Caribbean voice.
Nakhid explained that his candidacy is geared to position the Caribbean where it needs to be, “where we have not been before.”
“We had the illusion of leadership- the illusion of someone at the head table of FIFA before, but we never saw anything that came down to us in the Caribbean, we need to change that. We need to posit ourselves in a position where we understand our true value politically, but also in terms of the development that is needed in the wider world of football,” Nakhid explained.
The former footballer feels that if no one is there to represent the interest of Caribbean football, “no one is going to be concerned about our interest.”
“No one from outside our region can truly reflect what is needed,” he said.
“Infrastructure is the most important aspect in developing Football talent in a country as large and green as Guyana and it is disappointing that there is no football Stadium here. You can’t play Football on a cricket ground,” the FIFA Presidential hopeful noted.
Nakhid feels that the best coaches should be sent to the youth level and the finished product sent to Coaches like Jamaal Shabazz, whom he described as a close friend and Guyana best Coach.
“But in the Caribbean we tend to do things in the reverse and put the best Coaches at the senior team level. School Football is also very important since a child could be made to decide on his Football career and his academic career if he has to join a club to play football when at school. However if football is played in schools and you have a designated time for Football they will a more balanced student,” Nakhid opined.
But when asked if the involvement by leading Caribbean Football officials in the FIFA scandal would be a negative factor in his ambitions for the Presidency, Nakhid answered; “We need to rise above that and how we do that is that we don’t be defined by what’s happened in the past. We can’t allow what happened in the past – something beyond our control as Caribbean people. What we do is we push our vision forward, and we’re not afraid to push that vision forward.”
He added, “Now what we need to do, is if we become more pro-Caribbean rather than pro-UEFA or pro-Asia- it doesn’t mean we’re anti-anyone- but we’re pro-Caribbean in the sense that we understand our true value in this global football world. We understand what we bring to this process, and it is not a reference for a vote as it has been in the past. We then become a reference for true consultation. People then come down to Guyana and really ask you ‘well what do you need’ in tangible terms, not in promises.”
Europe’s Michel Platini is considered the front runner in the race for the top job in FIFA. Other top names who have thrown their hats in ring are Diego Maradona of Argentina, Zico of Brazil and Musa Bility, the Liberian Football Association President.
But Nakhid thinks that coming from a part of the World that has a diverse culture will give him the edge in becoming the first ever FIFA President from the Caribbean.