By Paul Nicholson
October 23 – Domenico Scala, chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee and ad hoc election committee, and the man behind the key set of reform recommendations that the February FIFA Congress will vote on, will be a speaker at the 17th edition of the International Football Arena (IFA) conference in Zurich, November 19.
Scala has increasingly taken centre-stage in world football as the crisis at FIFA has deepened as seemingly revelation after revelation has whittled away the governing body’s senior executives. He has the key FIFA official in terms of creating and pushing the reform agenda, as well as leading the committee that will oversee the election of the new FIFA president in February 2016.
The IFA conference on November 19 will take place 24 days after the nominations for FIFA president have been submitted.
Scala will take part in the debate on football in crisis and when asked in an interview earlier this week if we have seen the last of the revelations of corruption in FIFA he replied: “I don’t think so — that’s my personal assessment. …We have investigations under way by the US Department of Justice, by the Swiss attorney general the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee and internal investigations by Quinn Emanuel [The US legal firm]. You cannot exclude that more things might be found.”
Originally FIFA president Sepp Blatter was scheduled to top the bill at the Zurich meeting – to be held in FIFA House – but the terms of his suspension prevent him from taking part in any football-related activity.
Scala will bring an insight from the very front of the battle against corruption and insider viewpoint on the hottest debate the governance of world football has ever seen. His reform proposals would see a radical restructuring of FIFA’s all-powerful executive committee. “You do also need new governance rules. Term limits and integrity checks are important in my reform proposals, but the main proposal in my reform paper is the reform of the executive committee to create a governing board and management board. This would split oversight and strategy from commercial activities and day-to-day activities. Because FIFA officials today have two or three esponsibilities, there are inevitably conflicts of interest,” he said.
Also speaking will be Alexey Sorokin, CEO of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Local Organising Committee, who will update on his country’s preparations for the next World Cup.
The conference will also address various areas of commercial interest. Jens Hilgers, founder of Turtle Entertainment, will bring an alternative and challenging viewpoint to the more traditional football debate and thinking.
Hilgers will talk about the rapidly growing Electronic Sports League (ESL) that is challenging traditional events already, and more generally about “competitive, networked multi-player videogames” where several individuals networked and playing against or with each other.
Hilgers says that e-sports game are “more exciting than the real thing because they are changing – not many things have changed in soccer over the last decade. Games have a significantly higher strategic depth and thereby storyline. Videogames are highly accessible making it a very participatory sport. You can engage on your own at any time.”
Other speakers include Dr René Fasel, IOC Executive Board, President of the International Ice Hockey Federation; Douglas B. Arnot, Senior Advisor to CEO Sochi 2014, Baku 2015, Rio 2016; and Alexander Jobst, Member of the Board, Schalke 04.
Conference places in FIFA House are limited but tickets can still be ordered at http://www.internationalfootball.com/ifa-conferences/ifa-conference-zurich-november-19th-2015
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1735173667labto1735173667ofdlr1735173667owedi1735173667sni@n1735173667osloh1735173667cin.l1735173667uap1735173667