Transparency International disappointed that FIFA gives no strong signal for change

FIFA, world football’s governing body, failed to push forward a comprehensive governance reform process today and send a strong signal they are committed to change. It delayed by a year the introduction of many of the recommendations put forward by its Independent Governance Committee, most of which had been outlined last year.

In October 2011 FIFA announced a roadmap for reform and the formation of an Independence Governance Committee to make recommendations, which were scheduled to go to a vote by all FIFA’s members in May this year. However, FIFA’s executive committee failed to endorse the full scope of the Independent Governance Committee recommendations this year and many will be delayed until 2013.

“We are disappointed. We had expected a more comprehensive introduction of new procedures. Too much is still unclear and key issues, such as investigations into the past allegations of corruption, have not been properly addressed. It has already been nearly 10 months since FIFA promised to clean house,” said Sylvia Schenk, senior advisor for sport at Transparency International.

FIFA today confirmed that its Ethics Committee would have both an investigative and judicial branch, a move announced last June and welcomed by Transparency International. However, the details of how the committee will work were not outlined and FIFA did not publish its new Code of Ethics.

Although the Independent Governance Committee report recommended that past investigations should be carried out by the new investigative arm of the Ethics Committee, FIFA would not confirm that this will happen or endorse the recommendation.

FIFA also failed today to release information about the remuneration of its top executives and officials, a move that would have indicated a new level of transparency at the organisation and sent a strong signal of real change.

Editor's note: In August 2011 Transparency International published Safe Hands: Building Integrity and Transparency at FIFA