For the vast majority of people in Scotland, the name of Ramon Vega will chiefly evoke memories of his short but successful spell at the heart of a treble-winning Celtic defence in the early 2000s. But might they soon know him as the saviour of FIFA, and even – as is his aim – the saviour of football’s soul?
The man himself would like to think so. For over a decade, he has been painstakingly preparing and positioning himself for a run at the FIFA presidency, and now, with trust in the organisation arguably at an all-time low under the leadership of Gianni Infantino, he believes that his time has come.
If faith is to be restored in football as a sport - never mind FIFA as a governing body - after Infantino presided over the highest World Cup ticket prices in history and then attempted to sell a 20 per cent stake in a new commercial entity controlling the rights to FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup, to private investors without consulting the FIFA Council, he is firmly of the mind that Infantino has to resign.
As it stands, Infantino intends to seek another term as FIFA president in March next year, a prospect that is, for Vega, unthinkable.
“Speaking frankly, the trust is completely gone,” Vega said.
“You can’t go behind the council and try to sell privatisation. How can you even think that you could still sit there? In any public company, if you are a member or board member, never mind actually the chairman of the board, and you are behind the scenes selling the shares? A resignation on the next day is automatic.
“I am not sure where the council are with this, but that should be immediate resignation. From my point of view, if he had any balls and had some moral and ethical understanding what the damage is here, he should come out and put his hands up and say sorry.
“Mistakes? I don't believe in mistakes at this level. This was not a mistake. This was on purpose. Mistakes you can do potentially in another way, but we are talking here one of the biggest selloffs ever in world football and one of the biggest assets of world football. That is something where you can't make mistakes. It is impossible. I don't accept mistakes in this case.
“This is completely delusional mismanagement how that has been handled and by default the resignation should be done. But it is not going to happen, because we know the man we are dealing with here.”
For Vega’s campaign to succeed, he has many hurdles yet to clear. To that end, he confirmed that he has already reached out to the Scottish FA about supporting his candidacy as he attempts to secure the five nominations required to make the ballot.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“We already approached them as such.
“First of all, I have a great relationship with Scottish football anyway because I played there. I have a natural affinity with it through Celtic. It's a natural kind of forum to talk.
“I am going to speak to the SFA and I hope the Scots and SFA now also understand from where I'm coming from in their mind as well and support. I think I can help them quite a lot, and not from an intimidation way.
“Scottish football has an important part within FIFA because it's one of the foundations of the invention of football with England, as well the oldest rules of the game. So, that's very important and I'm very proud that I actually played in that country as well.
“For me, it would be absolutely enormous pleasure that they support me in going forward.”
In positioning himself almost as the anti-Infantino, it may be helpful to also know a little about the man we are dealing with on the other side of this coin outside of his brief love affair with Celtic.
After retiring from the professional game, the former Tottenham Hotspur, Watford and Switzerland defender carved out a career in international finance, and has since advised football clubs on finance, commercial growth, strategy and football development.
He first explored running for the FIFA presidency in 2015 and made subsequent efforts in 2019 and 2022, without ultimately making the ballot. His last campaign ended under what he describes as ‘difficult and deeply questionable circumstances’.
Undeterred, Vega, alongside his wife Claudia, who has an extensive background at the highest level of the professional game herself in technical and operational roles, has produced an 11-page document outlining why the time is now right for him to pick up that fight once more.
At its heart is a sense that football – the fans, the players and the many other stakeholders – are desperate for change; that there is a hunger for a different type of leadership, where supporters are the priority, and not simply treated as customers.
While not naïve to the political machinations of an organisation on the scale of FIFA, he is also an unashamed romantic about the power of football to inspire, and it is the disillusionment of fans and their potential disconnection from the game that is his greatest fear.
“This is the worry of myself,” he said.
“I played the game at the highest level, I served the game at the highest level. I have been giving to the game everything possible for where I am today. If I look back now, without the game, I couldn't talk now today with you regarding the game going forward or potentially lead the future of that game.
“I think it was important to put such a document together because people need to understand where this all comes from. It is coming with an enormous experience behind the scenes. People will see these guys are not coming in, and even though we are not inside the system, we understand the system extremely well. It was a lot of work from my wife as well because she understands the industry.
“If you think of the ticket prices for the World Cup as an example, I find this insane. The people's game, the game I played since I was a little boy, the one at an early stage I had access to for a small amount of money, which inspired me to go into football.
“When you start to minimise or even limit access because you start to be an elite game just to squeeze another pound, then you’re doing something completely wrong. You are not creating legacy or growth, inspiring the next generation.
“Let’s say you are a father, you’ve got two kids, they love football. Then there is a huge World Cup coming up, and you’re spending five to ten grand because you’re going to do as a father everything to show your kids the best of the best, which is the World Cup. But a father has to take out a mortgage or is taking credit and paying off for the next three to five years? That is not fair.
“And then you also limiting because not everybody can afford this. Most football fans are not coming from a champagne background. They are the soul and I love them because they have really the proper passion.
“When I was at Celtic that was one of the best periods of time and one of the best set of fans on the planet because they’re coming with passion; they do everything for that club.
“We need to make sure that these fans leave also a legacy for their kids and the kids of their kids. But if you stop them because it is too expensive, you’re completely missing the whole inspiration of the young generation to play football in the future.
“You can see the society is ready for change. That's what we want. The fans have been neglected massively. They have been used as a customer. They are not customer; they are loyal fans and they have to be respected.”
As Vega wryly notes, though, it isn’t always a commitment towards the betterment of football or advancing the interests of the rank-and-file fan that gains the support of member federations, but the distribution of cold, hard cash.
He finds it staggering that FIFA now holds a reserve of $6bn and believes the distribution of FIFA funds has effectively become a form of political currency. His proposal is that more than 90 per cent of money coming into FIFA should be distributed to its member associations rather than accumulating within the organisation.
“There is no doubt that this way of being afraid to speak out, because they have certain commitments already done, shouldn't really happen,” he said.
“At the end of the day, it is the interest of the game and not the interest of a personal achievement. If you start to doubt the integrity or your moral or ethical side, then you have to ask yourself in the mirror: do I really do something to serve this game, or am I part of all of them in this gang?
“I think it is important now that people understand that can’t be happening anymore. They are still afraid because we went through it with lots of other federations. This is why it makes me angry because you don't develop the football side; it is more political currency that comes into place.
“Once the political currency is involved, then it is a wrong path. We are not going in the right direction.
“Let me just be very clear. Any money that comes into FIFA belongs to the associations. There are certain accountabilities in terms of how you manage that money. But in my view, 90 percent plus of that money has to be distributed immediately to all these associations with certain check balances and accountability.
“Holding back that kind of level of reserves when I see some of the smaller African or Asian federations, where they are struggling to have under 15s, under 16s traveling to another friendly game because the costs are so high. This is what you guys potentially need to explain as well in the UK or in Europe. If you withhold the money for these people, you’re stopping the development.
“That is one thing that definitely needs to be changed and not to be using it as a currency. At the moment, I feel it. You do something for me and I’m going to distribute that money. Like now, he [Infantino] says, 'I am going to send you all 25 million dollars.' But he isn't sending anything; that is their money. You are not doing anything else better than giving back what is their money.
“Why is that not yet distributed and why was this not mentioned at the Vancouver Congress? That's the question - why is that mentioned only now when the topic [of the sell-off] comes into it. Because of intimidation, and the fear of standing up for something that is right.
“We need to come back to a democratic way of standing up. Either you can agree or disagree, that's the way that democracy works. But you can't have an autocratic way of dealing with this. It is impossible.”
It is safe to say, then, that under Vega’s watch, spectacles such as the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize to Donald Trump, or a national leader personally lobbying the FIFA president over a disciplinary case involving his country's team, would be a thing of the past.
Trump, infamously, personally asked Infantino to review USA striker Folarin Balogun's red card during the World Cup before the implementation of the forward's automatic one-match suspension was controversially suspended.
“Well, this is what happens when you’re cosying up with these people,” he said.
“I understand that it is the host nation. I have been in the game for a long time as well and I understand the politics, but you don't cosy up. You are friendly, you respect them, but there is a distance from the politics.
“Yes, I respect the host, I respect they put money into the hosting it. That's where it stays. Why do we need to have a peace award? I wouldn’t do that at all. That's not my responsibility, it is not my mandate. My mandate is to make sure the game is run properly with integrity and the distribution of the money goes to the right associations, and to make sure the grassroots has the right infrastructure to grow. That's my mandate.
“Giving a peace award? Not my mandate. That's for the Nobel Prize committee. They are an institution that has been doing this for years; they are responsible, they are respectable within the industry. That's not a matter of FIFA.
“It is the same thing when people are calling you up, 'Listen, I’d rather they do this.' That's the very question; I would say it is not my duty. I'm not answering them with, ‘I'm going to look into it’, like a partner in crime.
“I understand the motion from the American point of view. They want to make sure their country gets the best.
“But as a FIFA president, you have to tell them, 'Listen, it is not my responsibility. I'm sorry, I can't help you.' And you leave it there. That's it. That should have been a five-second discussion.”
Vega remains remarkably clued up about goings-on in Scottish football, particularly, and perhaps predictably, the fortunes of his former manager Martin O'Neill, who he was pleasantly surprised to see pulling on the old tracksuit once more.
"Unbelievable,” he said.
“He’s still got it. I sent him a message when he took over again. We have always had a good rapport.
“Everyone knows he’s a legend. He’s done an unbelievable job for that club. In the twenty-first century, I would say he’s the best manager Celtic had in terms of achievements and from where he took Celtic. After nine years of Rangers’ domination, he came and won the treble straight away. It’s remarkable.
“This is what sport is all about, the legacy you leave behind, and not the money. Legacy is more important to be remembered by.
"At that age, I think it’s refreshing for someone to take over that job. Once you have that management style, it never goes away. You just have to adapt to the new football world and how the youngster’s mentality is different to 20 or 30 years ago. That’s the only difference between coaches from twenty years ago and now, it’s adapting to the new world we are living in.
“Sometimes it’s good to have that conservative past as I still think that works best with a balance."
By reframing the role of FIFA president as one of service to the game rather than the accumulation of personal power or wealth, Vega hopes he will win over many beyond these borders too, who have become disillusioned with the way the game is presently run.
“The institution is above all,” he said.
“Not the individual person. That's very important to understand and that's the way I want to have it. We need to go back to a democratic way of decisions and accountability of the organisation.
“I think the president is there to make sure he is an ambassador, make sure that it is running properly. It doesn't mean he is the dictator or the autocratic way of dealing in it. He has to have consensus within all the member associations, the council. Respect, not like the disrespect now and the betrayal.
“That [the attempted sell-off] was betrayal. I don't know how these guys can still shake the hands of such a person who would betray them like that. Because that's really a betrayal from my point of view.
“So, it's important to make it not autocratic anymore, make it democratic. Put a formula in place and certain accountability and check balances. Certain power to be limited to a certain level because you still need to have certain authority to do it. That's what it is. But in a democratic way.
“It is one of the first things we need to look to in the first 100 days. I am inviting all the stakeholders to the table to put the consensus together how they view things, how we view things, how we’re going to change that. So, everybody is responsible too because in the end, the organisation belongs to the associations. That has to be very clear. It belongs to the association, not to me. Absolutely.
“It's very important that the guy who is running FIFA now knows it.”
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