By Andrew Warshaw
November 26 – A defiant FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke insists that the decision by two top-tier sponsors to end their association with FIFA had nothing to do with making a stand against the corruption allegations that have engulfed world football’s governing body.
But Valcke acknowledged that FIFA’s image cannot get any lower and that it will take ”years to rebuild our reputation” following the furore over the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding investigation.
Sony and Emirates have both announced they are not renewing their respective deals when they expire this year but Valcke was quick to deny any suggestion that this had anything to do with the fallout over Michael Garcia’s anti-corruption report.
“Both Sony and Emirates have nothing to do with the situation we are facing these last days,” Valcke told reporters in Belfast at the conclusion of the International FA Board annual business session, the interim gathering of the game’s lawmakers ahead of IFAB’s main annual meeting at the end of February.
“I know that football is still a very strong product and I am not really concerned with FIFA’s finances for the future.”
But Valcke acknowledged that FIFA’s image is not in the best of shape. “The image of FIFA is something I agree, over the last two weeks I would not say reached the bottom, but has reached a level which is definitely a level which we will not go lower than,”
“Things are happening, things have happened, but we are still doing a lot of good things. We have to rebuild this image day after day. It’s easy to destroy the reputation. It takes one second. It takes years to rebuild our reputation, but that’s what we will do.”
With FIFA president Sepp Blatter seeking a fifth four-year term as president in May, pressure is on FIFA to release FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia’s full 430-page report into the World Cup bidding process. The British government is the latest body to request full exposure. The requests are being made despite confidentiality issues and complaints by two previously unnamed whistleblowers that their confidentiality was compromised in the edited report released by FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert.
But Valcke, re-iterating FIFA’s position, said the report must stay secret to “mainly to protect 75 persons who have made a deposition and were given confidentiality” – including himself.
The sense of confusion at FIFA came to a head when Garcia criticised ethics judge Joachim Eckert’s interpretation of his investigative work, saying he would be appealing to FIFA because of “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations” .
Valcke admitted that the situation had turned into an unwanted spat within FIFA’s own administration.
“It’s said it’s a bit FIFA vs. FIFA,” Valcke said. “It’s sad for FIFA definitely, and it’s sad for our reputation and for the image. It’s sad for commercial partners, it’s sad for all the people who are supporting football.”
The Garcia-Eckert disagreement has now led to the report being handed over to Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA’s auditing committee, to decide how much of it to recommend for publication. Switzerland’s attorney general is meanwhile also looking into possible criminal activity by unnamed individuals involved in the bidding process.
“I hope deeply the decision would be that this bidding process on ’18 and ’22 is closed,” Valcke said, referring to respective hosts Russia and Qatar.
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