World game governance

FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced a host of new anti-corruption task forces for world football's governing body on Friday as the organization continues to battle persistent allegations of bribery and cronyism.

Blatter said FIFA's all-powerful executive committee had decided to divide the body's ethics committee into investigative and judicial units. The ethics committee is tasked with examining allegations of impropriety within FIFA.

In future, ethics committee members are to be elected by the FIFA congress, the organization's supreme legislative body consisting of over 200 members tasked with voting on the FIFA presidency, among other matters.

He said that a committee for corporate governance and compliance would also be formed, consisting of external members such as lawyers, sponsors and politicians.

"We will have four task forces. These are for the revision of statutes, for the ethics committee, for transparency and compliance as well as one for football 2014," Blatter said, adding that he hoped to see concrete results stemming from the anti-corruption plan by 2013.

Investigation reopened

Blatter also said FIFA would reexamine a case investigating the bankruptcy of the body's former marketing partners, ISL.

"This is an issue which has been raised by the national associations and members of FIFA and the executive committee of FIFA has decided that this case should be opened," he said.

"This could have legal repercussions and if something needs to be undertaken, it will not be something for FIFA," Blatter added.

The decision could make public the names of high-ranking FIFA officials accused of taking bribes from ISL in return for granting the company lucrative television and sponsorship rights to the World Cup during the 1990s.

'A welcome first step'

The changes were broadly welcomed by Transparency International Germany, a body that campaign for greater openness in public life.

"I think it was a very important first step of reform to have a new structure for FIFA but it was just a starting point, they still have to deliver," the group's chairwoman Sylvia Schenk told Deutsche Welle. "We have to work on it in future."

While the reopening of the ISL case was highly symbolic, said Schenk, the fact that a committee including external representation was especially important.

"We have proposed from the very beginning that FIFA should not work alone on the investigations on the one hand and the reform on the other, but that there should be an independent group reviewing all this and showing to the public that what FIFA is doing is really credible."

Rotten to the core?

FIFA has remained under intense scrutiny over the last 12 months. Concerns were initially stoked when two FIFA executives were suspended after being accused of asking for money for football projects in return for support the United States' bid for the 2022 World Cup.

Then, in June this year, FIFA presidential hopeful Mohammed bin Hammam of Qatar was excommunicated from the organization after claims he and another FIFA executive, Jack Warner, had tried to buy votes for Hammam's tilt at world football's top job. Blatter was eventually reelected to a fourth term at the helm, whilst Hammam received a life ban from FIFA.

Following the allegations of Hammam's dealings, serious doubt was cast on Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 World Cup - though no official investigation has been launched into the bid process.

In all, nearly half of the 24-member executive committee are either facing or have faced serious allegations of recent corruption.

Author: Darren Mara, Richard Connor (AP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Mark Hallam