By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – Having taken FIFA’s membership completely by surprise with the announcement of Fatma Samoura as his new general secretary, Gianni Infantino’s team building has continued with Norwegian football federation official Kjetil Siem being hired in the new role of director of strategic matters.
Siem has apparently already begun work ahead of the arrival in June of Samoura, a United Nations official from Senegal who has never before worked in football. For the past four years, Siem has been secretary general at the Norwegian FA, the same post Infantino had at UEFA.
Siem, a 55-year-old former journalist, also worked as CEO of the Premier Soccer League in South Africa from 2007-10. He is credited in Norway with creating the ‘Handshake for Peace’ project which was later adopted by Sepp Blatter, who handed over to Infantino in February and is currently banned and awaiting his hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The appointment of Siem will raise more than a few eyebrows in terms of Infantino endeavouring to distance FIFA from the old Blatter regime which became totally dysfunctional in its last few months because of the ongoing corruption investigations.
In January 2014, Siem told a Norwegian newspaper that Blatter was a “role model” and that he had “made FIFA into a cohesive organisation.”
In a statement on his appointment, Siem said FIFA’s current troubles made it the perfect time to join. “I’ll work on reforms, then on streamlining FIFA… It’s a privilege. It could not be better timing.”
“This is a tremendous vote of confidence and a huge task ahead. I’m working on ways to analyse how we can streamline the FIFA organisation. Working so closely with the president will be very exciting. Infantino contacted me after FIFA Congress in Mexico last week, invited me to FIFA headquarters and after meetings for five to six hours I was presented to the rest of the staff. It has been an exciting journey.”
Siem’s appointment comes just days after Domenico Scala, head of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, resigned over new Infantino-backed rules that seriously undermine FIFA’s independent ethics bodies.
Infantino told the Norwegian FA’s website: “I am very happy to have Kjetil Siem aboard. He has international experience and has shown the kind of qualities I need around me in efforts to reform FIFA.”
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