Fifa faces curbs on power by new committee

SEPP BLATTER and the Fifa executive committee may face significant curbs on their power following a review by the world football governing body’s new independent governance committee.

Mark Pieth, chairman of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s bribery working group, has challenged existing practices and controls at Fifa that have given rise to the alleged corruption that led to four executive committee members being removed from office this year. Pieth’s paper, Governing Fifa, recommends:

Term limits for officials such as the president.

Having independent non-executives on the executive committee, the main decision-making body.

A “lead director” capable of challenging the president’s authority through independently convened board meetings.

A conflict-of-interest regulation capable of removing officials from office.

Direct payment to member associations and sub-contractors or, as a minimum, full auditing powers of such payments to prevent bribery and corruption.

A committee to set salaries for officials and senior staff.

Restricting the overlap of bodies such as the finance and audit committees and the disciplinary and ethics committees.

Pieth, a former adviser to the World Bank and United Nations, has no specific powers of implementation. His independent governance committee will convene for the first time on December 17th, when its composition will be announced.

A number of hurdles remain before new regulations can be drawn up: such regulations must be agreed by the executive committee, subjected to a 12-month cooling-off period before implementation and ratified by congress.

“The organisation has to reorganise itself, that’s the challenge,” Pieth said at a briefing in Zurich.

“I’m putting forward a road map and I’m running a certain risk myself. But there is always a bottom line. If I’m not happy I can always say: ‘Right, this is it, I’ve had it’. I’m a straight-talker.”

Pieth’s report shines a critical light on a number of Fifa activities that depart from best practice. The relationship between Blatter and the Fifa secretary general, Jerome Valcke – the two are effectively the equivalents of an executive chairman and a chief operating officer – is deemed too cosy.

Pieth was critical of an organisation that allowed Blatter to occupy the presidency since 1998. While Blatter referred to his and Fifa’s “commitment to restructure”, and his “pride” that Pieth has taken up the role, he left the briefing before questions could be put to him.