By Paul Nicholson
December 9 – The battle over who controls world football and the looming spectre of continued and deeper intervention into the business of FIFA by the US justice authorities will become a question in the Swiss parliament on Monday.
Swiss member of parliament Thomas de Courten has tabled a question to the Federal minister of Justice and the Federal Government as a whole asking if the Swiss have agreed to join with the US justice authorities and, via state intervention, shut down FIFA completely.
Last week saw another very public series of arrests in Zurich timed to co-incide with the final FIFA executive committee meeting of the year. The arrests of interim CONCACAF president Alfredo Hawit and CONMEBOL president Juan Angle Napout could easily have been carried out in the US as both had been part of the negotiating team with the US Soccer Federation that had enabled the Copa America Centenario to be put back on in the US next year.
These negotiations, according to Insideworldfootball sources, took place with oversight of the US Department of Justice who are also taking a very active role in the oversight of the business of CONCACAF, raising questions over who is pulling who’s strings in the actual running of the confederation covering north and central America and the Caribbean.
The growing feeling amongst Swiss politicians and senior football executives in Europe is that the US will not stop until the world governing body is brought under control or disbanded – the feeling in the US is that FIFA should not be allowed to reform itself.
The rhetoric from the Washington press conference led by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, left no-one with any doubt that the US sees FIFA as the source of the corruption problem and that their intention is to solve this problem at source at FIFA – the ultimate target in the racketeering investigation that is on-going.
The question by de Courten will flush out whether the Swiss have a role in this powerplay and how far advanced they are.
One Swiss political observer said that the answer to the question can go three ways; ‘yes we are co-operating’, ‘no we’re not’, or ‘We are carefully observing’ – meaning they will move in.
The English translation of the tabled question is below:
FIFA-measures of the Federal Government
FIFA is organised under Swiss Association Law. The President, the Secretary General and further Members have either been suspended already for the suspicion of corruption or are already in prison. A proper management appears to be in question.
1. Does FIFA harm Switzerland’s reputation?
2. Are there options to ascertain the orderly management?
3. Does the Federal Government plan a state-intervention at FIFA?
4. Does the US Department of Justice exercise pressure for the (Swiss) State to adopt forced intervention?
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