By Andrew Warshaw
March 28 – Gianni Infantino’s number two has rejected rumours that FIFA are about to ditch their two top ethics officials whose rulings and judgements have brought down a raft of corrupt bigwigs.
Last year at the FIFA Congress in Mexico City, Infantino smuggled through a new law which gave his ruling council carte blanche to hire and fire members of the judiciary bodies, wiping away their independence in one fell swoop.
The whispers now are that Infantino is plotting behind the scenes to gain sufficient support to replace top ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert and chief investigator Cornel Borbely at this year’s Congress in Bahrain. It is understood that Eckert has made it clear he would like to carry on for another term.
Despite growing speculation that it might be the end of the road for both Eckert and Borbely, who have not received invites to Bahrain, FIFA General Secretary Fatma Samoura says there is no move whatsoever to get rid of them.
“I do not understand how such rumours arise,” Samoura told Switzerland’s Tagesanziger newspaper.
“We have been accused of not having invited the people of the Ethics Committee to the forthcoming Congress. But we have not even sent any invitations out yet.”
The former UN diplomat said she supported Borbely and Eckert “100 percent” and also defended the upheaval at FIFA where one fifth of staff have left since she was appointed on Infantino’s recommendation.
“Not everyone agrees with the change and reform process…but we want to move forward and not stand still,” she said.
Of the 81 departures, according to Swiss media, only 27 were redundancies. But Samoura sees nothing unusual in that. “You cannot say that FIFA has a crisis, that everyone is bad and corrupt, and then at the same time criticise FIFA when they replace people who do not fit in,” she argued.
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