The Vancouver-based president of the Canadian Soccer Association, Victor Montagliani, says Canada can no longer support FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

Canadian and U.S. soccer officials announced Thursday they will vote for Blatter’s only opponent — Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan — in Friday’s presidential vote at the FIFA Congress in Zurich.

Soccer’s international governing body was rocked this week by a string of indictments from the U.S. Department of Justice that alleged bribery and corruption by senior FIFA executives.

Blatter, who has headed soccer’s global governing body since 1998, has not been named in any indictments.

“I think organizations need a refresh and we need to govern the game in a better way,” Montagliani said in a statement late Thursday. “This is also a comment to the FIFA executive committee. It’s not just (about) one person. The game deserves better.”

He said the decision to support Prince Ali was made at a Canadian association’s board meeting Thursday.

UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, also supports Prince Ali, and Montagliani said other countries have come to the same decision.

“But we’re not looking at it from what other countries are doing,” he said. “This is our position, this is our stance and I think for the first time in a long time, Canadian soccer is taking the leadership role in soccer that it has been talking about taking for a long time.”

Montagliani said there is absolutely “zero room and tolerance” in soccer for the kinds of allegations being directed at several FIFA executives this week.

“I know they are allegations and I’ll treat them as such and respect due process here,” he said. “But (if the allegations) turn out to be true, there’s just no room for that in the game.”

Montagliani, a 49-year-old east Vancouver native who graduated from Templeton secondary, has been named to a special committee charged with “evaluating and sustaining” all the CONCACAF region’s business operations in light of the FIFA scandal.

CONCACAF, the soccer agency that covers North and Central America and the Caribbean, was the main target in the indictments announced this week. CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb was “provisionally dismissed” from the position this week. He faces corruption charges that carry up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Ironically, Montagliani told a newspaper interviewer last year that Webb was a major inspiration in his life.

He said his biggest inspiration was his father, Luciano, who used to manage Vancouver soccer club Columbus FC, where Montagliani played after he grew up playing soccer for Grandview Legion.

Vancouver Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi, an east Vancouver native like Montagliani, said the Canadian Soccer Association has become more cooperative with Canada’s professional soccer teams under Montagliani’s leadership.

The Whitecaps and the Canadian Soccer Association used to compete for emerging young players but Lenarduzzi said the Caps are largely responsible now for the development of elite youth players throughout Western Canada.

“That’s a hell of a long ways from where we used to be when we were all running different development programs,” he said. “Victor understands the importance of pro clubs, in terms of how the game needs to evolve in Canada.”

Lenarduzzi feels Montagliani developed a strong work ethic in much the same way he did, growing up in East Vancouver with parents who immigrated from Italy.

“When my parents moved here from Italy they worked their asses off and I think Victor experienced the same thing with his family,” he said.

Peter Montopoli, the Canadian Soccer Association general secretary, said Montagliani has Canadian soccer in his heart and “bleeds Canadian soccer to the nth degree.”

“He’s very passionate and very energetic about moving the sport forward and he’s always looking to see what the next big thing is,” he said.

Montopoli said Montagliani’s ability to speak three languages — English, Italian and Spanish — makes him very effective at building relationships within the international soccer community.

“He uses those language skills to great effect to impart his feelings of Canadian soccer globally,” he said. “He has that ability to speak the language of soccer. He knows the game very well, he knows business very well and he’s a great communicator.”

Montagliani became Canadian Soccer Association president in 2012 after serving three terms as the association’s vice-president. He previously served as president of the B.C. Soccer Association and has been Canada’s delegation head for several national soccer projects — including FIFA World Cup qualifiers and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

He is a senior vice-president and director at Vancouver-based independent insurance broker Shaw Sabey.

bconstantineau@vancouversun.com

Click here to report a typo or visit vancouversun.com/typo.

Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestory