MOSCOW, RUSSIA – JULY,15 (RUSSIA OUT) Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) passes symbolic FIFA … [+]
FIFA and good governance have long been mutually exclusive. Joao Havelange commercialised and globalised the game, and his successor Sepp Blatter clung to power for seventeen years before an acrimonious exit, but both administrations were pocked by politics and backroom deals. FIFA became a byword for corruption. Current president Gianni Infantino promised to clean up and introduce good governance, but eight years into the incumbent’s reign Miguel Maduro, the chairman of FIFA’s governance and review committee between 2016 and 2017, believes that FIFA is slipping back.
This week, soccer bosses from the world federation’s 211 member associations will convene in Thailand’s capital Bangkok for FIFA’s annual congress. Buried in the agenda of the Congress – item number nine – is a raft of proposed amendments to the FIFA Statutes. They include enshrining the possibility of shifting away from Zurich (articles 1 and 67.2), the reintroduction of standing committees (articles 39-46), and the simultaneous awarding of World Cups (article 68.3).
Miguel Maduro, a former Advocate General at the European Court of Justice from Portugal, told me: “FIFA doesn’t fear the reputational costs of openly embracing again the governance culture that has always prevailed. It’s, I think, just a confirmation. To a large extent, FIFA had already gone back to the same governance culture that preceded the 2015 scandals and then subsequent reforms. Some of these amendments highlight that FIFA feels sufficiently comfortable to do that in the open. This simply confirms that without effective, external pressure, no reforms will take place in the governance of sports.”
It’s a far cry from Infantino’s early days. “We will restore the image of FIFA and everyone in the world will applaud us, and all of you, for what we do in FIFA in the future,” said the FIFA president after his election in 2016.
The Swiss-Italian soccer administrator had used all the right buzzwords. Transparency, responsibility, good governance and leadership. FIFA’s global membership approved a set of reforms, including a term limit of twelve years for the FIFA president, stricter integrity checks, more female representation, an audit of the 211 national federations’ finances and disclosure of the FIFA president’s compensation. The all-powerful FIFA Executive Committee which awarded the World Cup to bidding countries was replaced by a FIFA Council.
FIFA, through a spokesperson, said it does not agree with the “sentiment” of Maduro, pointing to the DOJ award of $201 million, and partnerships with among others UNODC and Interpol. The world governing body said: “FIFA has massively changed since 2016, having greatly expanded its activities, competitions and areas of intervention. We have matched an increase in activity with an investment in several areas including competitions, youth development, football technology, women’s football, anti-discrimination, amongst many more. Having Committees in these areas allows the involvement of more football stakeholders in the democratic decision-making process. Critically, an increased number of standing committees will also see more female representation in the decision-making processes of FIFA.”
But, as early as 2017, FIFA removed the German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert and the Swiss prosecutor Cornel Borbely from the Independent Ethics Committee. Maduro suffered the same fate when he blocked Vitaly Mutko’s re-election bid to the FIFA Council. After all, as Russia’s deputy prime minister, Mutko was ineligible.
Maduro believes that the proposed amendments to articles 1 and 67.2 are a warning to Swiss authorities that FIFA can move to other jurisdictions. The new version of article 68.3 is startling in other ways. In 2010, FIFA under then-president Sepp Blatter and its executive committee awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cup to Russia and Qatar on one and the same day – December 2. The vote was highly controversial and ultimately led to Blatter’s downfall and FIFAGate.
Maduro says: “It’s basically what has already happened with the next two World Cups. In practice, FIFA negotiated and decided that the 2030 World Cup will be staged in Europe, Africa, and South America, and the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia. They did that at the same time, though formally they will have different moments of decision-making.”
“Everybody knows that the way they awarded the World Cup to Portugal, Spain and then to Morocco and then a few matches to South America, was aimed at making it possible to say that since that World Cup involved three continents, then the next one could go to Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia. They have already reneged on their promises of awarding the World Cup in a genuinely competitive tender – a transparent process. This reveals that FIFA feels comfortable in formalizing what they were already doing.”
From the Youth Boy’s Competitions Committee to the Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Committee, the proposed amendments envision the establishment of 35 committees. Infantino had previously cut the number of committees from 26 to 7. FIFA argued that “in line with the FIFA Governance Regulations, committee members’ expenses will be reimbursed but no salary will be paid.”
In the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, Jan Jensen wrote in an op-ed that it is a reminder of ‘the corrupt days under Blatter’ and concluded that even the former FIFA president must be ‘envious’ of the current modus operandi.
“It’s just a way of reinforcing the political cartel,” comments Maduro. “As I’ve always said, sports organizations work as political cartels with very strong voting syndicates. In the past, they got into trouble because voting was so frequently linked to vote-buying practices that it could amount to corruption.”
“Instead, you replace that with a patronage system where you promise people a position in one of these dozens of committees. You can do that in a very lawful manner. It’s a mechanism of control, concentrating power and preserving the political cartel under which they operate. So it’s a way of lawfully guaranteeing voting syndicates, and political allegiance, within FIFA in a way that guarantees absolute control to the president of FIFA.”
Article 29.4 of the FIFA Statutes provides that “A proposal to adopt or amend the Statutes shall be adopted if approved by three quarters of the member associations present and eligible to vote.” The proposed amendments came up at the last FIFA Council in March, according to a source close to a Council member. They are expected to be passed by the Congress without so much of an objection by FIFA’s 211 members.
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