FIFA calls for ethics team restructuring; may jeopardize corruption war

74 views0

FIFA calls for ethics team restructuring; may jeopardize corruption war

By

FIFA has decided to remove its ethics team and this was described as a “setback in the fight against corruption” by a dismissed team member, investigator Cornel Borbely. This he said in a press conference in Bahrain on Wednesday. The World football’s governing body agreed that Borbely and the ethics judge should not be re-elected at FIFA Congress, which holds in May 11 in the Gulf. Both were members of ethics team, whose investigation indicted Sepp Blatter and Hans-Joachim Eckert of having been involved in sharp practices. There were several hundred cases of corruption pending, according to Borbely. “The removal means nothing else but the end of the reform process,” Borbely remarked. “The ethics commission is the key institution of the FIFA reforms. “We could bring back some trust in FIFA, the ethics committee”¦ was the role model for the whole sports world. “As it seems now, the work of the ethics committee was inconvenient for functionaries, for FIFA officials. “The removal of the ethics committee is not in FIFA’s best interests”¦ and it’s a setback for the fight against corruption,” Borbely lamented. The recommendation is a historic one suggested by the all-powerful on Tuesday by the FIFA Council. However, Eckert and Borbely have already served four-year terms each. The replacement for Eckert, as recommended by the Council, is Vassilios Skouris of Greece, a former president of the European Court of Justice. Skouris served as president from 2003 till 2015. While his ethics colleague, investigator Borbely is to be substituted by Colombia’s Maria Claudia Rojas. The recommendation is to be endorsed by FIFA at its annual Congress in Bahrain on Thursday. The latest decision is not unconnected with FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s fears that Eckert and Borbely’s ethic team have already launched an investigation against him the previous year. Eckert was the presiding judge in the legal proceeding against Blatter and Michel Platini in November 2015. Eckert said: “It’s not a great day for FIFA,” as he spoke to a hurriedly arranged news hounds in downtown hotel in Manama. Meanwhile the concerned investigators said their fate has not been made known to them but only got the information through their mobile phones on arrival at Bahrain on Tuesday evening. “I would like to have an explanation,” Eckert asserted. Tuesday’s decision was kept secret by FIFA members yet a Council official said: “Congress members felt that FIFA and the Ethics Commission needed freshening up.” FIFA’s action pose a threat aimed at overshadowing its Congress. Critics, however said that it calls for questioning the reform agenda put in place by the president, whose assumption last year was preceded by corruption scandals. 

Discover more from NewsBreakers

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

What's your reaction?

Excited
0
Happy
0
In Love
0
Not Sure
0
Silly
0
Previous
Next

Comments are closed.