FIFA president Gianni Infantino one year on: Five things done and left to do http://www.espnfc.com/blog/fifa/243...o-one-year-on-five-things-done-and-left-to-do
Interesting article, and it kind of reinforces what we'd been thinking, which is that FIFA's attitude to corruption is now mainly about firewalling it and the host venue selection process. I think they're thinking that nobody would have known or cared how much FIFA execs were stealing as long as it didn't end up putting the World Cup someplace stupid and/or clearly corrupt.
Interesting article here on Liberian corruption (alleged) and whether FIFA/Infantino are complicit or will do anything about it. http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...an-fa-accounts-exposes-infantino-ally-bility/
Andrew Warshaw: FIFA, FIFA Ethics and an upcoming independence judgement day: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...a-ethics-upcoming-independence-judgement-day/
And this Warshaw article from a few days ago gives some useful background: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...wins-fifa-appeal-late-repair-election-damage/ Presumably the evidence against Chirakal has been given to the Swiss federal investigators (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...nal-fifa-probe-passing-evidence-us-swiss-law/) working on Qatar 2022. Although I expect they already knew enough about him, having been one of the stars of the Sunday Times investigation: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oFW6BQAAQBAJ
UEFA’s new human rights clause could stymie Turkey’s Euro 2024 bid FIFA considering a similar clause but we haven't heard too much about it.
By coincidence... FIFA have announced that the Governance Committee (hopefully not all crooks) have agreed a text for a Human Rights Policy and will propose it to the FIFA Council, presumably at the upcoming meeting on 9th May. http://www.fifa.com/governance/news...-meeting-of-governance-committee-2881926.html
FIFA power play to concentrate realpolitik from Council into a presidential cabal Yet another last-minute inclusion for Congress to vote on. And here I thought spreading out power to a larger Council was the main idea of the ExCo replacement. What a joke. I am slowly but surely coming around to the notion that FIFA is beyond saving. All credibility is lost in these last-minute power stunts before a Congress assembly. Not to mention the spirit of reform appears to once again have taken a backseat.
Borbely and Eckert out at the Ethics Committee: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39865344 Infantino clearly not serious about reform. Ridiculous.
FIFA like United Nations... Corruption... What Human Rights? And I had plenty of hope in Infantino...
FIFA won't survive much longer this way. The greed of individuals and member associations are killing the golden goose that is the international game. Power struggles, corruption, over-expansion of competitions and international calendar. It will soon break the structure of the sport as we know it.
Has been existing, almost since the moment people decided to work together. And as long as someone through it, can gain some sort of advantage on respect to others, corruption will exist. Unfortunately, corruption is part of the human behaviour. . . And related to FIFA, corruption has been there, almost since the moment of its inception. And very likely, it will continue existing in the future. At most, the best we can expect, it remains at the lowest level possible, but to pretend it never happens, it's lots easier to have donkeys talk as humans. . . Oh, and btw, "mr. Ed" was a horse. not a donkey....... .....
Reform -- to what end? Per the last couple of posts -- here's one from Wahl about how the newly elected Asian women representative couldn't even name the last Women's World Cup champion until her third try -- easily beating Moya Dodd who has been very influential within FIFA. I guess the men of FIFA don't really want a women who will speak her mind! I agree with Wahl's statement that it shows that the reform to include women in power positions is really a farce --- something IMHO that can be said about all that has happened since Blatter was booted. It's the same house, just different paint. https://www.si.com/planet-futbol/20...-cup-bid-usa-mexico-canada-dodd-guzan-atlanta
FIFA reform process in tatters after elimination of FIFA’s Ethics chiefs: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...ifa-reform-process-clear-fifas-ethics-chiefs/ Borbely and Eckert accuse FIFA of politicising Ethics as hundreds of cases left open: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...politicising-ethics-hundreds-cases-left-open/ I agree that corruption can never be completely stamped out at FIFA but we have reached a point where there is no longer even an attempt to keep up any reform "facade" for the public and sponsors.
More on yesterday's FIFA council meeting: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...ing-new-ethics-chiefs-saying-skouris-not-man/ Interesting... Looks like Montagliano is firmly in Infantino's camp. Can someone please photoshop Infantino's head on the body of James Bond villain Blofeld and make Montagliano henchman number two? At least that is off the table. For now.
Infantino says Ethics dismissals reflect a need for diversity and fresh blood: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...-dismissals-need-diversity-just-storm-teacup/ You don't say...
FIFA secretary general, Fatma Samoura, in the job for barely a year, has been caught paying over CHF28,000 to a cleaning company for the servicing of her own private living quarters. (USD 28000, GBP 22000) http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...dirty-samoura-pays-home-cleaning-fifas-funds/
I watched her conduct herself at the FIFA Congress just now. Not impressed. This is the truly disturbing part: After all the scandals (Enron etc.) how trustworthy are independent auditors today really.
Fifa Governance Committee members resign https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...embers-leave-fifa-governance-panel/101798844/
Holy SHIIITEE!! That is VERY damning comments from the people brought in to help restore FIFA's credibility...a key quote from the article: "The world of football still hasn't realized what is required if they really want to act under the rule of law and in a manner that is subject to effective, independent scrutiny," Maduro told The Associated Press on Wednesday in a telephone interview. So by my count FOUR members of the Governance Committee have resigned. Links to other articles (much seem to be derivative of each other): http://www.playthegame.org/news/new...-governance-committee-loses-two-more-members/ http://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/flight-fifa-sees-two-protest-resignations-governance-roles/ Interesting to me will be how the sponsors react to these announcements....Infantino is playing the same "I'm the boss game that Sepp did." Not a good look at all. From FIFA's site in regards to the FIRST meeting of the Governance Committee in January of this year. Hmmm, didn't take long for Infantino to totally gut/piss off the committee put in place to hold FIFA accountable (note - both Pillay and Weiler have resigned in protest.) Following the meeting, the chairman set up two working groups to work on the human rights policy and the electoral guidelines, to be coordinated by committee members Justice Navi Pillay (former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) and Joseph Weiler (Professor at New York University Law School and former President of the European University Institute) respectively. The FIFA Governance Committee was set up following the reforms approved by the Extraordinary FIFA Congress in February 2016 and its main role is to deal with, and advise and assist the Council on, all FIFA governance matters.
Transparency: UEFA boss Ceferin tells FIFA it must open its information channels http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...in-tells-fifa-must-open-information-channels/
Below is a cross-post from the Russia 2018 thread -- and I'm posting it here because it has as much to do with FIFA incompetence/head in the sand (corruption?) as it does about Russia 2018. What's even worse about this from FIFA/Infantino's standpoint - is the quote in the article posted by Southern Man. So...on June 6th of this year Infantino stood next to Putin and said (according to the article): “There is almost no doping in modern soccer, first of all thanks to the careful work of regional associations. We cooperate with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in some directions, but we can’t trust the organization which is writing hundreds prescriptions for drugs. I can’t understand how is it possible to allow not just drugs for enhancement of sport results, but even to consent to the use of prohibited substances. The sick person shouldn’t play soccer, and drug addict must be constantly supervised by doctor”, the FIFA president declared. So...not only did Infantino downplay doping in soccer, he questioned the 'trust' of WADA. How freaking stupid is Infantino looking now? I love WADA chief quote: "There has been an institutional denial of doping in football for years ... I've seen too many presentations by FIFA, straight out of fantasy land, about how they don't have a problem. They absolutely have to take this case seriously." Kind of how many of us feel about a lot of presentations by FIFA. FIFA continues to have a real problem.
Garcia report available in full at the following link along with a FIFA statement about how they were going to release it all along, though are releasing it now to make sure that the leaked version to Bild doesn't have any inaccuracies! What bureaucratic gobbledy gook, laughable really. https://www.fifa.com/governance/new...rage-regarding-the-garcia-report-2898791.html