By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Mauritius
May 30 – “Nobody loves us, we don’t care” is the mantra of one of England’s less popular football teams. Barring one word in that phrase, one could argue FIFA is adopting pretty much the same mentality as they approach the climax of Sepp Blatter’s two-campaign to rid his organisation of slease and corruption.
For “We don’t care”, read “We DO care.” At a briefing ahead of Friday’s pivotal FIFA Congress when a spate of statute-changing reforms will finally be adopted by its 209 member nations, senior FIFA officials were at pains to point out that barring age and term limits, the organisation has done everything it possibly can to put in place effective, workable measures which it hopes will change the image of world football’s governing body for good.
It’s a laudable but could prove to be a forlorn hope. Because whether Blatter likes it or not, measures such as integrity checks for senior appointees, a more powerful ethics committee with far more bite than previously, more women in senior positions and future World Cup hosts being decided by FIFA’s entire membership are currently, rightly or wrongly, not carrying nearly as much weight in closed-door sessions and media briefings as the thorny issue of age and term restrictions.
Age and term restrictions will not see the light of day this Congress following a decision to put off the whole debate for another 12 months. Many believe it is imperative for serving members of the FIFA heirarchy not to be allowed to go on indefinitely.
Certainly that is the opinion coming out of UEFA, whose members today expressed their displeasure and disquiet at what they perceive as the issue being swept under the carpet.
Michel Platini, for one, is somewhat cynical. The UEFA president believes there is simply no collective will to endorse age and term restrictions and doesn’t buy the argument of some of his non-European colleagues that because there was no specific detailed proposal on the table for Friday, any recommendation to introduce limits conceptually would not have gained the required three-quarters majority among delegates.
UEFA, Platini pointed out, has very specific ideas of its own – two terms of eight and four years for the President and an upper age limit of 72 for all elected officials. The problem is, no-one else among FIFA’s heirarchy supported the Europeans at this week’s FIFA executive committee meeting. So the idea was thrown out and there will be no ballot.
“UEFA wants the FIFA reform process to be totally completed at the 2013 FIFA Congress as President Blatter promised,” Platini said after today’s UEFA meeting at an exclusive beach-side hotel.
“We had therefore proposed an age limit to be introduced for all office holders and a limit imposed on the number of terms of office for the president, as envisaged and as proposed, moreover, by the Independent Governance Committee chaired by Professor (Mark) Pieth.
“But now FIFA wants to put these proposals on hold for another year. We do not think it is necessary to wait any longer as we have been discussing these matters for two years already… And in a year’s time, taking a decision will be just as problematic. For our part, we are committed to the timing of the reform process as wished for, promised and announced by Sepp Blatter himself. And we are in favour of this reform process being completed from start to finish. We are not happy being accused of not supporting the statutes. The Europeans cannot be accused of slowing down the FIFA reform process.”
Get the picture?
As usual, politics rather than pragmatism is the byword in Mauritius just as FIFA is supposed to be reaching its moment of truth as it becomes a more accountable organisation following the scandals of recent years.
But age and term limits aside, Dominico Scala, the Swiss industrialist parachuted in last year to head FIFA’s powerful Audit and Compliance, argues that the organisation has been unfairly criticised for watering down the reform process.
“You have to give FIFA some credit for trying to change and I do not think it is widely appreciated how much it is changing,” Scala said at a briefing earlier this week.
“A third of the executive committee has been replaced in the last 18 months, which is almost unheard of in public companies or organisations like FIFA. Of course there is some way to go, but the changes that have been made are considerable.
“The public may or may not appreciate them, but as a working organisation, I think FIFA have moved on a lot from where it was when this process started.”
Hours before today’s opening ceremony – a purely formal affair with the main business occurring Friday – there was yet more controversy, this time over the first ever elected female FIFA exco member.
On the eve of the ballot, one of the four contenders, Paula Kearns of New Zealand withdrew but that was nothing compared to the bigger picture. Two and half years after the humiliation of gaining a single vote in the bid to stage the 2022 World Cup, Australia looks set to suffer yet another setback with Moya Dodd – Asian Football Confederation vice-president and regarded by many as the most experienced and knowledgable of the candidates – looks likely to lose out to Lydia Nsekera of Burundi for the permanent position on FIFA’s executive committee. Nsekera was co-opted for one year at the last FIFA Congress in Budapest as the personal choice of Blatter, and now seems set to become a full-time exco member until 2017.
That would leave Dodd and Sonia Bien-aime of the Turks and Caicos Islands as also-rans with the guaranteed consolation prize of themselves being handed a one-year co-opted role.
“It’s all tied up in politics,” one of Dodd’s most high-profile supporters told Insideworldfootball, claiming that Nsekera had made little contribution hitherto to promote the women’s game. “Moya has by far the best credentials but it’s all about wooing the African vote in advance of the next FIFA presidential election in 2015.”
Mauritius, somewhat surprisingly given its relative lack of infrastructure, won the bid to stage the Congress by being chosen over Dubai and Honduras.
But the opening ceremony, staged at the at the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre, was a veritable galaxy of colour, showcasing the island’s culture and history with a pageant of singing and dancing as beautifully choreographed as any in recent years with a fusion of musical styles.
Blatter, whose main address will come on Friday, officially declared the 63rd Fifa Congress open by saying all the right things about his Mauritian hosts and about using football as a tool for social change.
He was followed on the podium by Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam who hoped his country’s “calmness and serenity” would help “steer the FIFA boat back into clear, transparent waters”.
Then the entire FIFA family went off for the trademark lavish pre-Congress dinner ahead of what will be a packed – and quite possibly at times prickly – agenda tomorrow.
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