Skip to content

26 September, 2023

Subscribe Advertise About Us
  • My Account
  • Register
  • Log In
  • Log Out

Board Agenda

  • Governance
  • Strategy
  • Risk
  • Ethics
  • News
    • Categories

      • View All
      • Board Moves
    • board control

      Are boards losing control?

      We need to ensure that regulations do not inappropriately reduce a board’s ability to take...

    • audit reform Labour commits to audit reform legislation

      Shadow minister for business, Jonathan Reynolds, says Labour will push through audit reform when in...

    • News round-up: this week in governance

      Lonely leadership; how governance helps in a crisis; Kerrie Waring to depart ICGN; ESG and...

  • Insight
    • Categories

      • View all
      • Governance
      • Strategy
      • Risk
      • Ethics
      • Board Expertise
      • finance
      • Technology
    • sustainability into finance

      How to integrate sustainability into financial decision-making

      Proactive leadership and board commitment are essential to transform notions of sustainability into fiscally viable...

    • reporting requirements

      Don’t let reporting requirements lead to boilerplate disclosures

      We must balance the need for disclosure of non-financial information so that it is sufficient,...

    • policy on human rights

      Why you need a policy on human rights

      As well as being the right thing to do, this element of a sustainable business...

  • Comment
      • View all
    • board control

      Are boards losing control?

      We need to ensure that regulations do not inappropriately reduce a board’s ability to take...

    • reporting requirements Don’t let reporting requirements lead to boilerplate disclosures

      We must balance the need for disclosure of non-financial information so that it is sufficient,...

    • CEO talent Can high CEO turnover boost gender equality?

      The trend for boards favouring internal pipelines for CEO succession creates an opportunity to nurture...

  • Interviews
      • View All Interviews
      • Podcasts
      • Webinars
    • helle bank jorgensen Helle Bank Jørgensen on governance, ESG and how board directors can become stewards of the future

      In spite of ESG toxicity in the US, she remains optimistic that companies are working...

    • information resilience IT transformation sees boards moving to ‘continuous’ management

      Data analytics available on demand requires a resilient—and selective—approach to sharing information, a webinar panel...

    • life sciences podcast Reform of NHS levy ‘harms UK competitiveness’

      Boards in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector face increasingly difficult decisions, according to a...

  • Careers
      • View all
      • Selection
      • Board Moves
    • CEO talent Can high CEO turnover boost gender equality?

      The trend for boards favouring internal pipelines for CEO succession creates an opportunity to nurture...

    • Starbucks sign outside shop in Warsaw, Poland DEI policies are targets for litigation, warns US lawyer

      Right-wing activists will continue to sue corporates over diversity, equity and inclusion policies they perceive...

    • CEO churn CEO churn is highest since 2019

      Chief executive appointments in the FTSE 100 are also up—but only 27% of incoming CEOs...

  • Resource Centre
      • White Paper Downloads
      • Book Reviews
      • Corporate & Advisory Services
    • ciia risk in focus

      Risk in Focus 2024: Hot topics for internal auditors

      Risk in Focus 2024 surveyed chief audit executives on their key challenges: geopolitical uncertainty and cybersecurity...

    • G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance 2023 cover

      G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance 2023

      The G20/OECD principles help policy makers improve the regulatory and institutional framework for corporate governance.

    • stakeholder engagement

      Director Reference Guide: Stakeholder engagement

      Board Agenda's 'Director Reference Guide' for boards on building an honest and trust-based relationship with...

  • Events
  • Search by topic
    • Governance
    • Strategy
    • Risk
    • Ethics
    • Regulation
    • ESG
    • Investor Relations
    • Selection
    • Board Expertise
    • finance
    • Technology

FIFA’s own goal

by Bruce Bean

FIFA recently suffered yet another resignation over its governance. Bruce Bean assesses the world football body’s journey to reform and whether it has made any significant progress.

FIFA webpageWhat’s this? Another FIFA “reform” official quits in disgust? Yes, Domenico Scala, chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee and author of FIFA’s most recent reform proposals, made a noisy withdrawal from FIFA in mid-May after the FIFA annual meeting authorised its council to “swiftly remove” members of the audit and compliance committee and FIFA’s ethics committee who “breach their obligations.” Tragically, this is just more of the same from FIFA.

Charade

Since FIFA’s decision in December 2010 to have Russia and Qatar host the world’s most popular sport’s championship matches, FIFA has stage-managed a marvellous reform charade.

Responding to the media maelstrom that arose immediately after FIFA’s stunning announcement that the World Cup would be held in Russia in 2018 and in Qatar in 2022, five-time FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, announced a “Roadmap to Reform.” This cynical roadmap, which Blatter declared successfully completed in 2013, has led nowhere.

Blatter’s Roadmap included several steps. In 2011 FIFA requested the international anti-corruption NGO, Transparency International (TI), to propose internal reforms for FIFA. FIFA also requested that Swiss Professor Mark Pieth propose his own corporate governance reforms.

An “independent” governance committee was established with but two genuinely independent corporate governance experts…

In 2012 FIFA reorganised its ethics committee and revised its ethics code. Additionally, an “independent” governance committee (IGC) was established with but two genuinely independent corporate governance experts, plus six FIFA insiders and four others.  Such was FIFA’s understanding of “independence”.

As requested, TI did prepare a corporate governance reform report entitled Safe Hands. However, TI withdrew from participation on the IGC, when it learned that this “independent” committee would not be able to review past-reported abuses and that FIFA was to pay the IGC chairman, Mark Pieth, $128,000 plus $5000 per day.

Alexandra Wrage, president of the international anti-corruption group, Trace, and one of the genuinely independent IGC experts, later withdrew from the IGC, declaring that FIFA was “neutering” some fairly uncontroversial corporate governance proposals.  She also described chairman Pieth as Sepp Blatter’s poodle, whatever that might tell us.

The report reviewing these three separate attempts to bring corporate governance standards to FIFA (TI’s Safe Hands), the separate Mark Pieth report and the IGC noted that of a total of 59 recommendations for reform proposed by these efforts, FIFA adopted a grand total of seven, with ten more partially adopted. The remaining 42 were completely ignored.

Instructive ethics

The record of the FIFA ethics committee is particularly instructive. FIFA hired former United States Attorney Michael Garcia to head the newly created Investigative Chamber of this committee.

Whatever might be said about Michael Garcia, it is asinine to say he is naïve.

Garcia was asked to review the process that led to the selection of Russia and Qatar as future World Cup venues. Garcia’s two-year investigation concluded with a confidential 454-page report.

This Garcia Report was reviewed by the new adjudicative chamber of the ethics committee, led by Hans Eckert, a German judge. In late 2014 Eckert published a 42-page summary of the Garcia Report and announced that Garcia had found no discrepancies in the 2010 selection process.

One notable quote from the Eckert summary referred to a finding in the Garcia Report that bribes had been paid in connection with the voting on the World Cup venues. Eckert stated: “To assume … that envelopes of full of cash [$40,000] are given in exchange for votes on a World Cup host is naïve.”

Whatever might be said about Michael Garcia, it is asinine to say he is naïve. Now a judge on New York State’s highest court, Garcia is the former federal prosecutor who brought down New York’s sitting governor and prosecuted both the 1993 World Trade Center bombers and those involved in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Garcia characterised Eckert’s 42-page summary as containing “materially incomplete and erroneous representations of facts and conclusions” and demanded the publication of his entire report. When FIFA refused, Garcia resigned in disgust.

So much for FIFA “reform”

Recapping the indignant withdrawals of TI, Alexandra Wrage and Michael Garcia, each found FIFA’s reform propaganda hypocritical and insincere.

And now we have Domenico Scala quitting in disgust after the FIFA council was given the power to remove members of both the audit and compliance committee and FIFA’s ethics committee who “breach their obligations”.

Where did Blatter’s Roadmap lead? Although FIFA, as a billion-dollar Swiss tax-free enterprise, can afford the world’s best corporate governance and anti-corruption experts, the FIFA track record on actual reform is tragically laughable.

As we know, the US Justice Department indicted more than 40 FIFA-affiliated individuals and legal entities in 2015. President Blatter, however, was not indicted.

Once the indictments were announced, however, the Swiss commenced their own investigation, eventually causing FIFA to ban Blatter from football for six years for a questionable $2m payment to Blatter’s deputy, Jerome Valcke, the FIFA general secretary. Valcke too has now been banned from football.

Snow White

The election of President Blatter’s successor occurred at a special meeting of FIFA in February 2016.  Several weeks prior to the election there were seven declared candidates, each a man from within the FIFA ecosystem.

One headline referred to these candidates as the “Seven dwarves—and nary a Snow White in sight“. Gianni Infantino, the general secretary of UEFA (the European football association) since 2009, was elected to succeed Blatter.

At FIFA’s annual meeting held in May 2016, FIFA confirmed Infantino’s choice of Samba Samoura, a former United Nations official, to be FIFA’s general secretary.

One headline referred to these candidates as the “Seven dwarves—and nary a Snow White in sight.”

This is an undeniably positive step. Samoura, the only woman executive at FIFA, comes from outside the indelibly corrupt FIFA ecosystem. Could she be the “Snow White”, someone who can actually commence reform?

Samoura, as FIFA’s second in command, appears to have a great opportunity to reform FIFA. And should Infantino be required to step aside, especially since the recent “Panama Papers” disclosures reportedly included references to him, Samoura may have an even greater opportunity to clean up the organisation.

If Samoura does effect positive change within the once-irremediably corrupt FIFA, and if she can avoid concluding that she too must publicly resign as TI, Wrage, Garcia and Scala have done, then, for the first time in FIFA’s sordid, corrupt history, the road to reform may begin.

Bruce W. Bean is a professor of law at Michigan State University.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail

Related Posts

  • Companies must put equality at the heart of the race to zero
    November 10, 2021
    Trees reflected in buildings

    Singular pursuit of net-zero by 2050 could exacerbate inequality and derail our chances of a climate-resilient future.

  • Executive pay, sustainability KPIs and the climate crisis
    December 1, 2021
    CSO with green tie and leaf in his top pocket

    Linking KPIs to sustainability targets results in complexity. A focus on corporate purpose is a better way to tackle climate change.

  • Selecting a direction: the six paths to leadership
    April 11, 2022
    Executives following different leadership paths

    The distinct paths taken by executives when assuming leadership roles will influence their perspectives and strategies for success.

  • Why the right sponsors are crucial to women's leadership progress
    February 3, 2022
    Women in discussion at business meeting

    Women need sponsors who will help them to access the mission-critical assignments that lead to top executive roles.

For thoughtful journalism, expert insights on corporate governance and an extensive library of reports, guides and tools to help boards and directors navigate the complexities of their roles, subscribe to Board Agenda

Domenico Scala, FIFA

Search


Sign up to our Newsletter

Receive independent news, thoughtful journalism & expert insights about leadership, corporate governance & key boardroom issues straight to your inbox every week.

SIGN UP

Follow Us

 

 

 

 

Most Popular

  • ‘Fast-moving threats’ will soon challenge boards, warns CIIA
  • Meta faces US lawsuit over its corporate governance
  • News round-up: this week in governance
  • How to integrate sustainability into financial decision-making
  • Don’t let reporting requirements lead to boilerplate disclosures

Featured Partner Profile

Diligent

Diligent

Diligent Corporation, which was founded in 2001, is headquartered in New York, NY with a European HQ in London. Diligent’s modern governance platform empowers leaders and teams at every level of the organisation to digitally transform and create ...

Featured Partner Resources

Leadership ESG

Leadership in ESG Integration: a study into UK board oversight, implementation and disclosure

This research report is based on detailed response...
The Engagement Appeal: The Path to Inclusive Investor Engagement

The Engagement Appeal: The Path to Inclusive Investor Engagement

This is the inaugural white paper from The Engagem...
Mazars c-suite 2023

Mazars C-suite barometer 2023

The Mazars C-suite barometer is based on responses...

Stakeholder Engagement: A Roadmap for UK Plc Boards

This guide aims to provide directors and their col...

Digital Boards: How Technology Adoption is Driving Culture Change and Resiliency

Digital tools proved their worth to boards during ...
Leadership in AI report

Leadership in AI

This report from Board Agenda and Mazars, in assoc...

A Director's Guide to Conducting Internal Investigations

An internal investigation must be handled meticulo...
 

ADVERTISE – FREE CORPORATE LISTING

FREE - Add your company profile to our Corporate & Advisory Directory.
ADD

ADVERTISE – PROMOTE YOUR REPORTS & WHITEPAPERS

FREE - Add your company profile to our Corporate & Advisory Directory.
Add Resource

Register Free

Register to receive free article views, selected resource downloads, and all the latest news alerts straight to your inbox. Register


  • Editors & Contributors
  • Editorial Advisory Board
  • Corporate & Advisory Services
  • Media Marketing Solutions
  • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Board Director Network
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Sitemap
|