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 The package should help to guarantee that whoever is elected to
succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president at the Congress being held in
Zurich will face closer scrutiny and have less influence over the
day-to-day management of the organization's business affairs.
The reforms include term limits for top officials and disclosure of
their earnings, and a separation of powers between an elected FIFA
Council responsible for broad strategy and a professional general
secretariat, akin to a company's executive board, handling the
business side.
FIFA's member associations voted by 179 to 22 to accept the reforms,
which Francois Carrard, independent chairman of the Reform
Committee, said were "necessary to bring a profound culture change
to FIFA".
"This reform package will provide the foundation for the new
president and the new leadership on which to build for the future,"
he said.
"It is not the end of the process, it is the beginning of one which
will be developed over the years and is designed to restore the
credibility and reputation that FIFA deserves."
That reputation is now so low that FIFA faces a $108 million deficit
for 2015 "arising from a lack of credibility", an official said on
Thursday. FIFA had already said it was proving difficult to renew
sponsorship deals, and that no major contracts would be signed
before a new president was in place.
ARRESTS AND BANS
Blatter and former European soccer chief Michel Platini have both
been banned from the game for ethics violations, caught up in a
storm that was unleashed when a clutch of delegates at a FIFA
Congress last May were arrested at dawn at the behest of U.S.
investigators.
Criminal investigations in the United States and Switzerland have
resulted in the indictment of dozens of soccer officials and other
entities for corruption, many of them serving or former presidents
of national or continental associations.
In addition, FIFA has been forced to investigate controversies
surrounding the awarding of its biggest showcase, the World Cup
finals, especially the decision to grant the 2018 tournament to
Russia and the 2022 finals to Qatar, a small, scorching desert state
with little soccer tradition.
Swiss authorities are reviewing more than 150 reports of suspicious
financial activity linked to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022
finals, and said on Thursday they had sent more documents including
an internal FIFA report to U.S. investigators.
Whoever takes over from Blatter, who ran FIFA for 17 years like a
globe-trotting head of state, will have to set about rebuilding the
tarnished brand.
Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman bin
Ebrahim Al Khalifa is the bookmakers' favorite with Gianni
Infantino, Swiss general secretary of the European soccer body UEFA
a close second.
Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein believes he is still firmly in
the race, however, while Frenchman Jerome Champagne and South
African Tokyo Sexwale will hope to make an impact.
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"My first task will be to take responsible action to end the
crisis," Ali said in his address to the forum, vowing "no acceptance
of mismanagement, corruption, self interest, racism, sexism,
discrimination of any kind or human rights violations."
"I'M ONE OF YOU"
Sheikh Salman told the gathering: "I'm not ready to mortgage the
future of FIFA for election purposes ... I am one of you, elected in
a national association for 15 years and elected in a confederation
as a president for the last three years."
Champagne called for greater equality in the sport: "Do you want a
football that will become like basketball, concentrated in a very
limited number of countries or leagues? Or do you want football to
continue in a universal way?"
Infantino told Reuters: "I am feeling good and very positive. The
support I am receiving fills me with confidence."
Blatter's ban means he cannot attend the congress, but the
79-year-old said he had had contact with all the candidates except
Prince Ali, and that many groups had sought his advice.
"I only answered: vote for who you want," Blatter told a Swiss
newspaper, the Aargauer Zeitung.
The CONCACAF confederation for North and Central America and the
Caribbean opted against endorsing a candidate and delegates
suggested that support within the region was divided.
With no block vote from those 35 delegates, Africa's decision looked
set to be the decisive factor.
African countries make up more than a quarter of the 207 soccer
associations eligible to vote. On the final day of campaigning,
there were sharply conflicting versions of how they would cast their
ballots.
While the vice-president of their continental federation said
virtually all would back Sheikh Salman, several delegates told
Reuters the African vote would be split.
Infantino has said he is confident of winning more than half of the
African votes, while Liberian soccer chief Musa Bility predicted
that 27 of the region's votes would go to Jordan's Prince Ali.
(Additional reporting by Mike Collett, Brian Homewood and Joshua
Franklin; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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