By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
September 25 – Almost lost in the stunning news that the Swiss attorney general was opening a criminal investigation into FIFA president Sepp Blatter, was the release of information following the two-day FIFA executive committee meeting that “deliberated on a number of forward-looking measures to improve governance as part of the reform process.”
At the top of those measures was, ironically, a move to approve a request by the ethics committee to name individuals being investigated before actual rulings are made and explain precise reasons for punishing officials.
The request underlined the growing frustration of the two men who run the ethics committee, investigative chamber head Cornel Borbely and ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, in terms of what they can and can’t reveal – and when.
The FIFA release said its legal committee had been asked for a “final deliberation” ahead of the next exco meeting scheduled for December. The independent chairmen of the committee’s two chambers, Hans-Joachim Eckert and Cornel Borbély, had “advocated this change in the interest of transparency”, FIFA said.
In response, a statement from the Ethics chambers said: “The chairmen of the investigatory chamber and the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee, Cornel Borbély and Hans-Joachim Eckert respectively, welcome the support given today by the FIFA Executive Committee for their request for greater transparency.”
“They expect the Executive Committee to definitively approve the request on a legally binding basis at its meeting in December 2015, after the FIFA Legal Committee has completed its in-depth deliberations. Until this binding decision has been made, the Ethics Committee will continue to be unable to confirm individual proceedings or to publicly justify decisions before they become legally effective.”
“The FIFA Code of Ethics prevents the names of accused parties within an investigation from being disclosed upon request. This is inconsistent with state criminal proceedings in Switzerland and in other European countries, which would provide considerably greater transparency,” added Borbély. “Transparency should be accorded greater importance when weighing up the protection of privacy against disclosure. For this reason, today’s agreement in principle by the Executive Committee to our request is good news for FIFA’s credibility and reputation.”
Eckert said it was not acceptable to leave things as they are for much longer. “Regardless of whether an accused party is appealing the decision, the Ethics Committee should be able to publicly justify its decisions. Where there has been public misinformation, the Ethics Committee must also have the right to offer rectification,” he said.
The statement added that both men “are of the opinion that greater transparency in investigations would help efforts to uncover and clear up fraud, as it would encourage potential informants to support the investigations.”
Next meeting
Another decision was switching the December executive committee meeting from Tokyo, around the date of the Club World Cup, to Zurich. Presumably to protect Blatter from any danger of arrest in a country that has an extradition treaty with the US.
FIFA also revealed that the chairman of its much-touted Reform Committee, François Carrard, had briefed exco members and that a set of recommendations would be proposed at the December meeting. It was also re-confirmed there would be no obligation for clubs to release players for the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament in Rio next year, given that the event is not part of the international match calendar. However, FIFA is asking for support from the clubs to allow players who are called up by their national teams to be given the chance to take part.
Additionally, and backfilling empty positions and stalled initiatives, Congo’s Constant Omari was appointed as the new chairman of FIFA’s anti-discrimination Task Force in succession to Jeffrey Webb, the former CONCACAF president who was one those arrested back in May and who is now out on bail in the US having pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
FIFA’s executive also supported the Task Force for Women’s Football call for greater inclusion and referred their report to the 2016 FIFA Reform Committee for consideration for final reform proposals. Meanwhile, rules were amended to increase the number of females on delegations at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup 2016 in Papua New Guinea – a similar change to the regulations had already been adopted for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. Sonia Bien-Aimé was appointed as the new chairwoman of the Organising Committee for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
One of the previous hottest topics in FIFA circles – the dates for the Qatar 2022 World Cup – were set as part of the approval of the international match calendar for the 2018-2024 period, The tournament will be staged November 21 to December 18, 2022.
Other FIFA executive committee decision included:
– The Oceanian Football Confederation (OFC) will receive an additional slot (in total two) for the FIFA U-17 and U-20 World Cups as of 2017. UEFA will have 5 instead of 6 slots.
– Futsal will replace football at the Youth Olympic Football Tournaments Buenos Aires 2018.
– The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has to revise its statutes and hold new elections within two years. The PFF must report to the FIFA Associations Committee every six months on the progress of this revision process.
– A normalisation committee has been appointed for the Benin Football Association.
– Kohzo Tashima will lead a joint FIFA/AFC delegation, composed of H.R.H. Prince Abdullah (FIFA) and Mariano Araneta (AFC), to Jakarta to assist the Football Association of Indonesia to ensure that the suspension can be lifted as soon as possible.
– The mandates of the normalisation committees of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), the Football Association of Maldives (FAM), and the Togolese Football Association (FTF) were extended until 30 November 2015, 30 October 2015 and 31 December 2015, respectively.
– The Kuwait Football Association is to be warned about a suspension if nothing is done by 15 October 2015 to avoid the implementation of the new sports law due to come into force on 27 October 2015.
Contact the writers of this story at paul.nicholsonainsideworldfootball or moc.l1734887262labto1734887262ofdlr1734887262owedi1734887262sni@w1734887262ahsra1734887262w.wer1734887262dna1734887262