By Paul Nicholson
July 26 – FIFA waited more than five months before issuing the verdict banning Liberian Musa Bility from football activity and stripping him of his position on the executive committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The ban was issued after Bility refused to support the FIFA intervention and two days after he said he was taking his complaint to CAS.
The decision of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee regarding Bility was made on 12 February 2019 (see image below). It was a decision made by Vassilos Skouris (Greece), chair of the Adjudicatory Chamber, Mohammad Al Kamali (UAE) and Jack Kariko (PNG).
FIFA did not inform Bility of the verdict or supply the legal reasoning for their decision until it was made public on July 24 – two days ago.
The timings of the release of the verdict point to a huge manipulation of the Ethics process by FIFA’s executive on behalf of the political objectives of the FIFA president.
That February 12 verdict was issued just two days after Bility (on July 22) said he would be taking CAF to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in order to stop FIFA’s direct intervention in CAF’s day-to-day affairs.
It has been an ongoing and ugly process of intimidation and threats by FIFA as its executive have wielded every tool – legitimate and otherwise – in their political toolbox to maintain an iron grip over CAF and its increasingly compliant and fractured membership which (by virtue of voting numbers) underpins Infantino’s presidency.
Last week, in Cairo, and just days before the CAF general assembly, Bility claims that Mattias Grafstrom, FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s Chief of Staff, threatened him that if he did not support FIFA’s intervention in the management of CAF he would be banned.
Grafstrom allegedly told Bility that if he came out in support of the FIFA intervention at CAF then the ban from the Ethics chamber would be made to go away. The implication was that if Bility bowed to the request he would keep his position.
Bility was not so easily blackmailed. “They wanted me to put out a press release saying I support the co-operation. I was not going to do that because I didn’t,” he told Insideworldfootball.
Having now reviewed the legal reasoning for his ban Bility says he will appeal the decision (life ban and CHF500,000 fine). “By January (2019) they had interviewed me, my lawyer had made his presentations. There was nothing left. This was the final decision. They made the decision and kept it for six months. Why? They held this decision for a reason,” said Bility.
The obvious answer to Bility’s question is that the decision was held so it could be used as political ‘capital’ at a letter date. Something Grafstrom clearly did in his promise to make the decision go away if Bility changed his position.
“There will be a big question,” said Bility. “This is surely a serious breach of FIFA’s Ethics code by its own Ethics people. Who investigates the investigators?… How many other decisions are they hanging on to?”
It is indeed a big question and one that is increasingly being asked as the credibility of FIFA’s Ethics process and the individuals that wield its power is once again left shredded. If the Ethics process itself is corrupted what does that say about the organisation leadership under Infantino that moved so swiftly to remove its independence once he took power.
As regards CAF and the management of African football, Bility is still adamant that Africa must govern itself.
Referring to the CAF executive committee meeting in Cairo last week that supposedly greenlighted taking the FIFA collaboration before congress for their approval, Bility said: “Gianni came to our meeting uninvited. We were only told 10 minutes before he walked into the meeting. We never took any decision (on the FIFA intervention). This is flawed, it is wrong and it will humiliate us as African leaders. There was never a vote on this. That is why I am taking it to court.
As regards his colleagues at CAF, he said: “I told them openly. If you do this (approve FIFA takeover), if we abdicate responsibilities, the continent will burn us alive.”
For many of Africa’s current leaders they may not have to wait too long as Bility says the administration will come for anyone perceived as a dissenting voice, pointing to Nigeria’s president Amaju Pinnick as one of the next to be ousted. “They are going to remove them one by one,” he said.
And as things stand, they will probably get away with it.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714172855labto1714172855ofdlr1714172855owedi1714172855sni@n1714172855osloh1714172855cin.l1714172855uap1714172855