Little Movement at First FIFA Reform Meeting in Bern

(ATR)Former IOC director general Francois Carrard lead a 12 person team in reform discussions for two days in Bern, Switzerland.

This was the first meeting of the reform commission that was created to help steer football’s governing body away from the recent corruption scandal engulfing the organization.

"The Reform Committee discussed a number of areas of importance including overall governance, financial mechanisms and the responsibilities and scope of FIFA’s various bodies," says Carrard.

Outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter opened the meeting with an address to the commission. Following Blatter’s address, chairman of the FIFA audit and compliance committee Domenico Scala gave a report on changes that could limit the power of the executive committee of FIFA.

Among these changes are term limits on senior officials, restructuring the 27-member executive committee, reducing the executive board’s influence on decision making and publishing payments made to FIFA officials to increase transparency.

At the end of the month, Carrard will present a preliminary report to the executive committee. The next reform committee meeting will take place October 16-18.

Chung Accuses AFC of Breaking Electoral Rules

FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong Joon has accused the Asian Football Confederation of violating electoral and ethical rules by sending letters to member federations asking them to support fellow candidate Michel Platini.

Chung launched his accusations during a press conference on Thursday after forwarding copies of the letters to FIFA’s electoral and ethics committees.

The letters in questions are titled "Proposal and support of the candidature of Mr. MP for the office of FIFA president." Chung posits that MP stands for Michel Platini.

The letter ends with the statement: "Finally, just for good order, we wish to confirm that the (INSERT NAME ASSOCIATION) is supporting only Mr. MP and, accordingly, we did not sign any other declaration of support for another candidate for the office of the FIFA President."

Chung says the letters were sent to all member federations of the AFC except for South Korea and Jordan, the federations of Chung and fellow candidate Prince Ali bin Hussein.

"It is an obvious case of election fraud infringing on the basic rights of other presidential candidates," said Chung.

The confederation has yet to respond to these accusations but say they are reviewing his claims.

The election for the next FIFA president will take place February 26.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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