Ali is a good guy. Giving away my age here, but I graduated from Salisbury School with him. I wasn't super close, but It's a really small school ( enrollment was a bout 190 when I was there) so everybody knew everybody. We were on the same football team junior year and played the same positions on offense and defense. Senior year he lived a couple doors down from me in the dorm. I used to love to chat about politics with him, but he was so mellow and down to earth that he really was just one of the dudes. It's pretty cool and a little surreal to see a classmate on the global stage even if he is a royal. But based on what he has been up to with the sport and his other involvements, I would say that he would be the right guy and the right time for FIFA. He has deep ties in the West and the East and he is a progressive even by middle eastern standards. He's been a big advocate the Women's game in the middle east, and has been one of the few people pushing to allow Arab women to play without having to wear a headscarve.
Anyways, I will be pretty happy for him if he wins.