Anti-Corruption Chief Expects Opposition to Final FIFA Reforms

(ATR) The FIFA Executive Committee meets Wednesday and Thursday to review the final batch of reform proposals aimed at improving the governance of world football’s governing body following a string of corruption scandals.

But ExCo members won’t get to discuss the reforms until the second day of the meeting; reforms are No. 27 on an agenda of 33 items.

German ExCo member Theo Zwanziger is the man charged with consulting FIFA’s 209 member associations and confederations over proposals for the ongoing revision of the FIFA Statutes.

He’ll report to the ExCo on Thursday. Chief among the reform proposals is an age limit of 72 for FIFA election candidates; a two-term, eight-year limit for the president; integrity checks for all candidates; changes to the composition of the International Football Association Board; and a revamp of the voting process for future World Cups.

ExCo members will decide which of these proposals is put to a May 31 vote of the FIFA Congress in Mauritius.

FIFA's anti-corruption chief Mark Pieth told Around the Rings: "I am hopeful that they will pass a substantial part of the reforms.

"I don’t have the illusion that they will pass everything."

Pieth was reluctant to comment further on his frustrations about the FIFA reforms process previously expressed to ATR. But he'll speak out on March 22, the day after the ExCo meeting.

When ATR spoke to him last month, Pieth said he feared senior figures in FIFA’s inner sanctum may reject his latest recommendations for reform as they bid to cling to long-held power and privileges.

The head of the Independent Governance Committee advising president Sepp Blatter said it would be a "power struggle" to get phase two of the reforms approved at the FIFA Congress.

Pieth said it was "not a good sign" that the final batch of reform proposals had met with "resistance" from UEFA ExCo members. UEFA has already registered its opposition to the proposal to limit FIFA ExCo members to two four-year mandates. It also wants a 12-year limit on the FIFA presidency.

The Swiss believes some of the reforms will not make it to Mauritius. "I am hoping," he told ATR. "But it is a huge struggle and we have diverging factions... People who don't like it. Probably a lot are afraid of losing some of their privileges and power and being restricted in the future," he said.

Among other items on next week’s agenda for FIFA’s ruling body are reports from secretary general Jerome Valcke on preparations for this summer’s Confederations Cup in Brazil as well as the 2014 and 2018 World Cups.

He will also report on the outcomes of the International Football Association Board meeting held in Edinburgh earlier this month. An update on goal-line technology developments is expected.

FIFA’s ethics chiefs are scheduled to offer an update on their activities.

A notable absentee from the ExCo meeting will be Sri Lankan Vernon Manilal Fernando, who was banned for 90 days pending the outcome of an ethics probe into alleged misuse of Asian Football Confederation funds.

Blatter and his colleagues will also review the candidates to head FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee and four nominees seeking to become the first female to be elected to the ruling body. They will be elected at the 63rd FIFA Congress.

Reported by Mark Bisson.

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