By Tim Rohn and Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – The growing sense of unease pervading FIFA under the regime of Gianni Infantino has been exposed by a blatant attempt to undermine a scathing report into the organisation’s record on governance by the Council of Europe. FIFA’s lobbying fell on deaf ears as the council overwhelming voted in favour of adopting the report with 131 votes in favour and just five against.
Last month, FIFA’s highly controversial decision to purge its senior governance officials back in May with the backing of Infantino was called into question by former Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) president Anne Brasseur who criticised FIFA’s way of operating, accusing Infantino of “micro-management” and pointing to “the high number of people dismissed” since his election as FIFA boss.
Brasseur called for a “radical change in the culture of football governance” including FIFA’s independent committees being handled by an external agency. Her ideas appeared to have had the desired effect when, almost immediately, the two organisations agreed to work closer, Infantino declaring that they “share many common goals”.
There were public handshakes all round yet now FIFA has issued a detailed, face-saving response to Brasseur’s findings that attempts to restore the moral high ground.
When Brasseur’s report was put to a resolution at PACE’s winter session in Strasbourg this week, it is understood FIFA, spearheaded by Infantino, attempted to thwart its approval by lobbying hard with an 11-page letter distributed to parliamentarians of the 47 member states.
The memo, entitled Good governance at FIFA: a factual account and seen by Insideworldfootball, criticised Brasseur by referring to some of her findings as “rumours” and “personal suppositions”.
It further described parts of her report as “either incomplete, missing or downright wrong“:
“A significant number of references to FIFA are supported not by evidence but by assumptions,” FIFA wrote.
In her report Brasseur stated that “the true independence of FIFA supervisory bodies does not seem to be secured. This is also the conclusion of all the experts external to FIFA whom I met.”
FIFA hit back by suggesting that the report did not reflect the “substantial change” the organisation had made under the leadership of Infantino.
When asked for her reaction, Brasseur whose report acknowledged some progress had been made but asserted that there has been little change since Infantino took over the FIFA presidency after Sepp Blatter, told Insideworldfootball she was surprisedabout FIFA’s approach.
“I tried to find out where I was wrong but I couldn’t find anything,” she said. “This (Fifa) letter is not an explanation, but a justification for their conduct.”
FIFA, Brasseur said, lives “in a bubble and is not accessible from the outside.”
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