FIFA
still resistant to change, says former official
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[September 13, 2017]
LONDON (Reuters) - FIFA is
struggling to implement reforms and change its operating culture
because its leaders are more worried about their own political
futures, a former top official said on Wednesday.
The global soccer body has been trying to overhaul its operations in
the wake of the worst crisis in its history, sparked in 2015 by the
indictment in the United States of several dozen soccer officials on
corruption-related charges.
Miguel Maduro, a former head of FIFA's independent governance and
review committee, also told a British parliamentary hearing that
FIFA's leadership tried to persuade him not to block Russian Deputy
Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko from being re-elected to its top
committee.
"There is a culture in the institution ... that is extremely
resistant to accountability, to independent scrutiny, to
transparency, to prevention of conflicts of interest," Maduro told
the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
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He said FIFA president Gianni Infantino "realized that if he wanted
to survive politically, he had to choose to protect the independence
of bodies, and therefore to keep us in place, or answer to his
constituency."
Neither FIFA nor Infantino could immediately be reached for comment.
Maduro, a Portuguese lawyer and politician, was removed form his
post in May, two months after ruling that Mutko could not stand for
re-election for his place on the FIFA Council.
His responsibilities had included conducting eligibility checks on
candidates for places on FIFA committees.
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The sun is reflected in FIFA's logo in front of FIFA's headquarters
in Zurich, Switzerland November 19, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd
Wiegmann/Files/Files
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At the same time, FIFA also decided not to renew the
mandates of Cornel Borbely and Hans-Joachim Eckert, the two heads of
the independent ethics committee responsible for banning a number of
soccer officials over the previous three years.
"If they wanted in FIFA to really have independent scrutiny, they
ought to have protected us," said Maduro. "I think that ultimately,
he (Infantino) chose to politically survive."
"I was clearly told that declaring Mr Mutko ineligible would
probably cost the presidency because the World Cup would be a
disaster and as a consequence the presidency would be put under
question," Maduro added.
Mutko was barred by the governance committee because his position in
Russia contradicted its statutes concerning political neutrality.
Infantino was elected in February 2016 to rebuild FIFA after it
became embroiled in the corruption scandal.
(Reporting by Brian Homewood in Berne; Editing by Hugh Lawson) [© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All
rights reserved.]
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