? Sepp Blatter set up committee and is open to reform
? Reactions to corruption allegations 'clearly unconvincing'
The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, has announced further moves towards reform of his organisation while being subjected to uncompromising criticism of its failure to clean up the corruption scandals of the recent past.
The independent governance committee (IGC) of world football's governing body, set up by Blatter and chaired by Professor Mark Pieth of the Basel Institute, said in a report that it had received documents and held a hearing with Fifa to understand how the organisation dealt with past misconduct.
Allegations made against senior Fifa executives have included bribe-taking, executive committee members seeking favours in return for World Cup votes and profiteering from TV rights and other commercial activities, allegedly linked, in the case of the former executive committee member Jack Warner, to supporting Blatter himself for the presidency.
"Clearly the existing procedures are ? insufficient," the IGC report concluded. "This has led to unsatisfactory reactions to persistent allegations. In particular the IGC has identified a lack of proactive and systematic investigation of allegations. In some instances allegations were insufficiently investigated and, where sanctions were imposed, they are at times insufficient and clearly unconvincing."
That verdict was followed by recommended reforms for the future: to set up a separate investigating arm to bring cases to a judicial "chamber" which will hear charges. Fifa clarified that the chairmen of both these bodies will be chosen by its congress of 209 football associations in May, from a list of candidates nominated by Pieth.
Speaking after the senior decision-making executive committee had met in Zurich, Blatter said it had resolved to implement that reform, along with an enhanced audit committee to increase scrutiny of Fifa's huge income flows. Pieth told the Guardian earlier this year that his committee would wait for Fifa's response to this report before deciding whether to call for an active investigation into past corruption allegations. When Blatter was asked how he intends to deal with past allegations, he did not say there are any plans to investigate.
That appears to leave the onus on Pieth's committee, which has yet to gain solid credibility and the confidence of the football public, to decide whether to push for investigations. In its report it said only that any allegations from the past should be investigated and dealt with by the new investigative and "adjudicatory" ethics bodies.
"Whereas the ? rules will not be [retrospective]," the report said, "procedures and organisational measures will be applicable to past behaviour."
Blatter reported that Fifa's executive committee had agreed to "further discuss" the other reforms recommended by Pieth's committee, principally "a new code of ethics" to set rules for the organisation, and changing its internal structures to ensure compliance with those rules.
Fifa simultaneously released its financial figures for 2010-11 which reinforced the need for the organisation to be clean and more transparent. Although the period covered was three years before the next World Cup, in Brazil in 2014, sales of some of the TV rights have been concluded for that tournament and for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. That, and $348m for 2014 marketing rights, took Fifa's income last year to $1.07bn.
Fifa spent $1.034bn, saying 75% of that was invested in football, including $183m, 18% of its expenditure, on development projects. That left the organisation, based in Zurich where it is classed as a sporting association exempt from taxes, with a profit of $36m.
Fifa disclosed that its 24-man executive committee, finance committee and an unspecified number of senior management were paid between them $29.5m, and $2.1m in pension contributions. Blatter declined to identify who, including himself, was paid what.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/30/independent-committee-fifa
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