By Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – Germany’s FIFA Council member Reinhard Grindel has re-iterated his opposition to the removal of FIFA ethics chiefs Cornel Borbely and Hans-Joachim Eckert saying the surprise move should have been handled more transparently.
The German FA boss famously broke ranks ahead of the FIFA Congress in Bahrain when he criticised the pair’s departure, with the knock-on effect of scores of ongoing cases having to be handed over to their replacements.
Several days on, Grindel remains of that opinion though he accepts the need to move on.
“I personally have always said that Mr Borbély and Mr. Eckert should have carried on and that continuity of their work should have been guaranteed,” he told Deutschlandfunk, a German public broadcasting radio station.
“(But) We have to look ahead, otherwise it does not help anything.”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has described the media outcry over the removal of Borbely and Eckert, who had come to the end of their terms, as a “storm in a teacup”, comments which only served to inflame public opinion further.
“Gianni Infantino as FIFA president presented his suggested lists and asked for comments,” said Grindel. “I made two critical comments … and referred to the good work of Mr Borbély and Mr Eckert, who pointed out shortly before the Congress that the FIFA General Secretary, Mrs. Samoura, had actually stated her 100 percent support for both.”
Critics claim that FIFA broke its own statutes by not giving Eckert and Borbely four months’ notice. German reports are even alleging that the pair were on an initial list of 45 candidates, only for the list to be somehow whittled down – this time without their names on it – by the time it reached Council.
“We would have liked to discuss the suggested list beforehand,” said Grindel. “We would have wished that we had been informed of the proposed list in a more transparent process.”
“I spoke with Gianni Infantino personally about the question of the statutes. He has assured me that all the provisions provided for were complied with.”
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