By Andrew Warshaw
April 30 – Despite claims that his beloved reform process has been watered down and will achieve little, Sepp Blatter remains confident that the package of measures will “bring FIFA up to the highest standards of good governance” at next month’s eagerly awaited Congress in Mauritius.
Two years after the infamous cash-for-votes scandal surrounding the FIFA presidential election, preceded a few months earlier by the controversial World Cup ballot for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, the final batch of reforms are being put to the vote in Mauritius but, at this stage, appear far from achieving a consensus.
UEFA has already proposed a different set of recommendations, not least for age and term limits for those holding elected positions, while the independent advisory panel which drew up the original clean-up proposals lost a key member last week when Canadian Alexandra Wrage quit after claiming FIFA had either “neutered” or totally ignored many of the panel’s ideas – including a request for Blatter and his colleagues to disclose their salary and expenses.
But in announcing the agenda for the Mauritius summit – which includes expanding the executive committee to allow for more female representation – Blatter remained bullish about FIFA entering a new era of credibility after losing a spate of executive committee members through either suspension or resignation as a result of corruption claims.
He insisted Mauritius would herald a more modern, accountable FIFA. “I am confident that FIFA will emerge stronger… and well equipped to continue serving the millions of people in football we represent.”
Clamping down on racism will also form part of the agenda at the May 30 and 31 Congress. The first meeting of the newly created Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination is being held on May 6 under the chairmanship of CONCACAF boss Jeffrey Webb and will include representatives from the different stakeholders of the football community as well as a broad panel of experts.
“We have to work on two fronts,” said Blatter. “First on education … but besides that, we also need to have stronger sanctions. We have seen that fines achieve little, but point deductions and exclusion from competitions could be more effective measures. We will now have a task force with experts in this area who I am sure will help us achieve our objective of kicking discrimination and racism out of football.”
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