By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – The ability and willingness of FIFA to clean itself up following the biggest scandal in sporting history looks to have been undermined after Asia’s most influential sports administrator says a number of reform proposals will be rejected, not least term limits for senior officials.
FIFA’s US sponsors last week warned they may have to reconsider their positions if the reforms do not go far enough. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti kingmaker who recently joined FIFA’s inner circle, has revealed that up to 40% of the proposals could be thrown out.
Sheikh Ahmad was referring not to the list of proposals drawn up by Francois Carrard, head of the Reform Committee established by Sepp Blatter, but to the counter set of recommendations which go much further and have been put forward by FIFA’s independent compliance chief Domenico Scala.
Scala, who had been in charge of the reform plans until the sudden creation of Carrard’s group, wants term limits for executive committee members and other senior officials. He presented an eight-point plan on September 1 but several of his ideas are not part of Carrard’s model.
Controversially it is Carrard’s less strict set of proposals rather than Scala’s more robust and wide-reaching ideas which is due to be put to FIFA’s executive committee in early December and rubber-stamped by Fifa’s 209-member congress on election day on February 26.
Asked about Scala’s reforms, Sheikh Ahmad, a leading player in the Olympic movement who already wields considerable influence on FIFA’s exco, said only “60-70%” of them were being backed by the reform committee and that term limits would be restricted to the FIFA president alone. Scala proposed term limits of three four-year terms also for executive committee positions, the Secretary General and members of FIFA’s other independent committees.
Scala wants the same limits for continental confederations and national federations so that no-one in the game would be able to hold the same office for more than 12 years. But the Reform Committee report only stipulates an age limit of 74 and makes no mention of term limits other than for the president himself.
“This is normal for a lot of organisations,” said Sheikh Ahmad told Reuters. “I think age-limit will achieve the same goals – you will have three or four terms maximum, unless you are young. And if you are young, what is the percentage that is so young to make the rules for them?”
Skeikh Ahmad is himself a member of the Reform committee and his comments will re-inforce criticism of the make-up of Carrard’s body which comprises confederation officials with vested interests. FIFA’s front-line sponsors have called for the body to have a far more independent voice and provide increased transparency and show real change.
Rejecting term limits means that someone aged 40 could theoretically stay on the exco for 34 years – until they reach 74. That, Scala told Reuters, was completely unacceptable given the ongoing crisis that has led to a spate of senior officials being sanctioned and Blatter stepping down prematurely.
It now remains to be seen whether Scala can persuade Carrard’s group to go further.
“I believe term limits for all executive committee members are critical and higher governance standards at confederation and association level are also critical as they are the main cause of the current issues,” said Scala.
He also wants a rotating presidency but Sheikh Ahmad said that was going too far. “I don’t believe in this. Just because we are in trouble we don’t have to kill everything. We have to solve the problems without an over-reaction,” he said.
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