{"id":435471,"date":"2011-06-03T12:45:24","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T12:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/03\/cleaning-up-fifa\/"},"modified":"2011-06-03T12:45:24","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T12:45:24","slug":"cleaning-up-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/03\/cleaning-up-fifa\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning up FIFA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Daily<\/a><\/p>\n

3 June 2011<\/p>\n

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editorial<\/p>\n

Amidst reports of financial scandal and crisis of confidence, 75-year old Swiss, Sepp Blatter, who has run FIFA since 1998, was on Wednesday re-elected to a fourth-term as president of the world’ football governing body. He won by186 votes of the 203 cast by delegates drawn from across national football federations that make up FIFA.<\/p>\n

The Federation has been embroiled in crisis arising from fresh allegations of corrupt practices, a development that led to the suspension of two FIFA executive committee members- vice president Jack Warner and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed bin Hammam, who had sought to challenge Blatter to the top post.<\/p>\n

Allegation of sleaze was first made by a member of the British parliament, to the effect that Qatar had paid two FIFA executives to vote for the Gulf nation’s successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup. Lending some credence to the claim, an email that Warner made public appeared to show that FIFA general secretary, Jerome Valcke informing colleagues that Qatar indeed bought the hosting rights. Jerome, who as general secretary of FIFA is described as Blatters’s right-hand man, told reporters that the email released by Jack Warner was genuine and the person involved was Hamman.<\/p>\n

The admission prompted an inquiry launched by FIFA ethics committee; its report exonerated Blatter from blame, but suspended Warner and Hammam.<\/p>\n

Over the past year, 10 of the 24 members of the powerful executive committee of FIFA were subject of inquiries into allegations of corruption made against them, seriously calling the credibility of the organisation into question.<\/p>\n

Last November, FIFA executive members Reynald Temarii and Amos Adamu were questioned and then banned over allegations that they agreed to sell their votes in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting contests to undercover newspaper reporters.<\/p>\n

The FIFA episode mirrors that of the crisis of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) when its delegates were found guilty in bribe-for-votes scandal in the award of the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

An Australian senator is reported to demand a refund from FIFA of the $48.8million spent on its failed bid for the 2022 World Cup, won by Qatar, while England which also submitted a bid for the 2022 World Cup, asked for suspension of the presidential election pending further investigation, a request rejected by the congress. Blatter was sole candidate.<\/p>\n

It is no doubt that FIFA under Blatter has made positive strides during his 13 years in charge, having made it possible for Africa to host the World Cup tournament for the first time and also added slots for the continent’s participation in the world soccer events at all levels. Similarly, FIFA under Blatter made creative ways to make money through sale of TV rights, sponsorship and merchandising opportunities and currently boasts reserves of over $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Despite these achievements however, Blatter’s re-election came at a time the organization’s integrity is being tested amidst widespread cases of corrupt practices among its key officials. The reform process that Blatter has conceded to launch should be widened to include transparency, accountability and openness in all FIFA engagements.<\/p>\n

It is on this premise that we welcome Blatters’s desire to overhaul the body, and the proposal that World Cup hosts should in future be chosen by the Congress from a short-list prepared by the 24-man executive committee which hitherto enjoy absolute power to make final decision in this regard.<\/p>\n

Further more, there is need for Blatter to democratise the body especially in the election process for the president and other key principal officers. It is also worthy to commend the congress for accepting a proposal to strengthen the ethics committee by separating the investigation and decision-making powers and another to create a new watchdog called the “solution committee.” This we believe would enhance credibility, transparency and openness in adjudication. The involvement of all federations in the selection of World Cup host in the future would indeed enhance transparency in the process and curtail the high level lobbying which gives room for bribe taking and corruption. Reforming FIFA is a task that must be done in the next four years . Perhaps, this would help redeem the battered image of the organisation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\nCleaning up FIFA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 June 2011 editorial Amidst reports of financial scandal and crisis of confidence, 75-year old Swiss, Sepp Blatter, who has run FIFA since 1998, was on Wednesday re-elected to a fourth-term as president of the world’ football governing body. He won by186 votes of the 203 cast by delegates drawn from across national football federations that make up FIFA. The Federation has been embroiled in crisis arising from fresh allegations of corrupt practices, a development that led to the suspension of two FIFA executive committee members- vice president Jack Warner and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed bin Hammam, who had sought to challenge Blatter to the top post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":435472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-435471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"yoast_head":"\nCleaning up FIFA - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/03\/cleaning-up-fifa\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Cleaning up FIFA - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"3 June 2011 editorial Amidst reports of financial scandal and crisis of confidence, 75-year old Swiss, Sepp Blatter, who has run FIFA since 1998, was on Wednesday re-elected to a fourth-term as president of the world' football governing body. 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