FIFA reform campaign launched

A group campaigning to change world football's governing body, FIFA has been launched at the European Parliament in Brussels.

FIFA reform campaign launchedFIFA reform campaign launched

FIFA reform campaign launched

A group campaigning to change world football's governing body, FIFA , has been launched at the European Parliament in Brussels.

 

The 'New FIFA Now' coalition of reformists include Members of the European Parliament and a range of sports administrators and politicians.

 

The campaign is heating up ahead of FIFA's presidential election, due in May.

 

The unveiling of the reform campaign means FIFA potentially faces the greatest challenge to its authority since it was formed 111 years ago.

 

The 'New FIFA Now' coalition aims to alter how the world's largest football organisation is run.

 

It follows ongoing allegations of corruption, bribery and deceit directed at the highest levels of FIFA governance.

 

British M-P Damian Collins has been the driving force behind the creation of 'New FIFA Now'.

 

Mr Collins has called for action from political and judicial institutions.

 

"I believe that it is legitimate in a circumstance like this, when we're talking about the governance of the world game, that institutions, parliaments, bodies from around the world, that can take an active interest and support the process of renewing change should act, and that also when we're dealing with issues of potential or alleged criminality that law enforcement agencies like the FBI, like the Serious Fraud office in the UK, reserve the right to act accordingly".

 

The new coalition has the potential to exert considerable influence in the run-up to the FIFA presidential election in May, and hopes to be able to affect the way FIFA is governed in the future.

 

It's the first time so many different groups have publicly stated a lack of faith in football's ruling body.

 

One speaker at the summit in Brussels was David Triesman, a former chairman of the English Football Association.

 

Mr Triesman oversaw England's failed bid to stage the 2018 World Cup.

 

He says football authorities should not behave like an elite, and questions the values of the people in the institution's decision-making bodies.

 

"So I think, that the decisions that were taken by the group of people who took the decisions about the next two World Cups are decisions taken by a group of people, roughly speaking 50 per cent of whom, have been shown not to have had appropriate values and standards whilst they were in the process of making those decisions."



FIFA's former chief ethics investigator Michael Garcia quit in December.

 

Mr Garcia claims FIFA's 42-page summary of his 430-page report into the bidding process for the 2018 / 2022 World Cups misrepresented his 18-month investigation.

 

Bonita Mersiades is a former member of Football Federation of Australia.

 

She was part of the failed Australian bid for the 2022 World Cup final, controversially awarded to Qatar.

 

She says Mr Garcia is a victim of FIFA's culture of secrecy.

 

"But on the basis of what we know so far, it seems that the only people who have come out the worse for wear in Garcia's investigations are those who upset FIFA's narrative of there being 'nothing to see'[. In this regard, whatever scenario one accepts about Michael Garcia's report, he is almost, almost as much of a victim as FIFA's self-serving, decision-making culture of silence as whistleblower Phaedra Almajid and me."

 

The 'New FIFA Now' coalition has launched a Charter for FIFA Reform and a ten-point plan for change.



FIFA's new president will be elected during a congress in May, in Zurich.

 

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan has announced he will stand for the presidency.

 

He'll challenge incumbent Sepp Blatter and former French diplomat and FIFA executive, Jerome Champagne.

 

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