By Andrew Warshaw
August 8 – FIFA’s entire ethics framework has lost both credibility and independence as a result of the decision to clear Gianni Infantino of any misconduct despite a string of persistent allegations over serious ethics breaches. That is the view of Mark Pieth, the Swiss governance expert first brought in by FIFA to oversee the reform process.
The ethics committee announced on Friday that no action was being taken against Infantino who took over the FIFA presidency from Sepp Blatter in May promising to sweep away FIFA’s toxic past but who immediately became embroiled in controversy over an allegedly ruthless quest for power.
Among the serious allegations Infantino faced was that he hired and fired opponents, savagely weakened the clout of FIFA’s independent bodies, ordered documents incriminating him to be destroyed, used unauthorised private jets to Moscow, Qatar and Rome – the last of these to visit the Pope – and inflated his expenses. Most recently, the heads of the travel department and general secretariat suddenly left FIFA after becoming whistleblowers.
Yet none of that persuaded FIFA’s ethics committee that he had broken any rules over conflict of interest.
“FIFA’s ethics committee is institutionally no longer independent, “ Pieth told Insideworldfootball. “I am shocked and a little sad. This is a quite amazing decision, substantially ignoring the principle of proportionality. They are clearly afraid of the most powerful officials. It’s clear double standards.”
Pieth claims Infantino has in fact behaved worse than Blatter who was banned for eight years (later reduced to six) years by the ethics officials before, crucially, an unexpected change in the statutes – allegedly engineered by Infantino himself – which in one fell swoop allowed for members of independent bodies to be dismissed by FIFA’s new ruling Council. “For me he has behaved in a more Blatter-esque way than Blatter himself, trying to disembowel the reform process for private gain,” charged Pieth.
In a separate interview with Swiss media, Pieth said the amendment to the statutes, approved at the 11th hour by FIFA’s congress in Mexico in May, could not be under-estimated. “For me it is an obvious conflict of interest that someone is ready to put a key element of the reforms into question for personal enrichment.”
“Not only did Infantino manage to get rid of (former audit and compliance chief Domenico) Scala, he gave himself and his colleagues at the council the right to dismiss the inspectors. This is at least as problematic as the conflict of interest which …. Blatter and former UEFA president Michel Platini were criticised for.”
Pieth said he was “not convinced” by the ethics committee’s argument that private flights Infantino took to meet the likes of Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Emir of Qatar were perfectly legitimate since they were the only means of travel at the time because of sudden changes to Infantino’s schedule.
“The excuse…that they would have arrived too late for a meeting in Qatar does not convince me,” said Pieth. “You could simply have called Qatar and said it would take longer.”
Claiming the ethics committee were now “knuckling under” the authority of others, Pieth explained: “That is my interpretation. They are afraid (of losing their jobs) since the congress in Mexico. I had hoped we would have done something good by implementing the independent ethics committee but now we see how it is being dismantled piece by piece.”
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