FIFA The Reform Charade Continues

Abstract

No one was surprised when the U.S. Department of Justice indicted more than 40 parties in 2015 in a corruption probe of FIFA, the world “football” (soccer) agency. The only surprise was that it was the Americans, where football is only the third or fourth most popular sport, that actually did it.In contrast, everyone was surprised when in December 2010 FIFA announced that Russia and Qatar had been chosen as the venues for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup championship matches. The world media reacted with a maelstrom of trenchant commentary on these most unlikely choices. Could it be there was corruption involved? FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, responding to his “shock” that there might be corruption going on here, predictably and cynically, announced his “Roadmap for Reform.” This Roadmap was mere propaganda. Blatter had no interest in reform or in adopting international standards of corporate governance. Three separate resignations of independent parties (Transparency International, Michael Garcia and Alexandra Wrage) hired to help reform FIFA made “noisy” exits from this cynical process between 2011 and 2014.While Blatter was not indicted, the Department of Justice indictments ultimately led to Blatter’s resignation as President and to his being banned from football for six years. His successor, Gianni Infantino, was one of the seven candidates hoping to succeed Blatter. Each of these candidates, no surprise, was a man from within the incorrigibly corrupt FIFA ecosystem. Infantino, however has succeeded in having a new FIFA General Secretary elected. Big surprise, the new number two at the male-only FIFA is a woman, former UN official Samba Samoura. Is this the beginning of genuine reform within FIFA? Or will Samoura find it necessary to follow the others who have withdrawn from FIFA’s cynical “reform” process?While we await the resolution of this question, it augurs ill that in May 2016 the Chairman of FIFA’s nominally “independent” Audit and Compliance Committee, Domenico Scala, found it necessary to announce his own noisy withdrawal from FIFA after Infantino arranged for the FIFA Council to have the power to “swiftly remove” members of both the FIFA Audit and Compliance Committee and its Ethics Committee for “breaches of their obligations.” Such is the FIFA understanding of “independence.”Does the Infantino presidency mean more of the same for FIFA or will Samba Samoura be allowed to finally commence meaningful corporate governance reforms for the entity controlling the world’s most popular sport?Anyone betting “yes?”