FIFA Congress Passes Reforms on Mission to "Restore Trust"

(ATR) FIFA has approved sweeping reforms that it hopes will help recover its battered reputation.

They include: term limits of three terms of four years for the FIFA president and executive committee officials; separation of political and managerial functions with the formation of a 36-member FIFA Council; publication of salaries; and more women in decision-making positions at FIFA’s top table.

Amid allegations of human rights abuses involving migrant workers in Qatar, host of the 2022 world Cup, a committee for human rights will also be included in revamped FIFA statutes to monitor issue linked to football.

The package of measures was passed by the extraordinary congress in Zurich Friday with 179 in favour and 22 against. While FIFA’s 209 member associations are present, only 207 were eligible to vote; Kuwait and Indonesia are suspended over government interference.

Billed as a ‘milestone’ in FIFA’s 112-year history, the raft of changes to FIFA‘s statutes drawn up by former IOC director general Francois Carrardand his reforms committee mark the first step in the federation’s long road to redemption after years of scandal and mismanagement.

Today’s congress was notable not only for the critical votes on reforms and a new president, which comes later, but for the absence of Sepp Blatter.

The banned former president had wanted one final curtain call before bowing out as president after 18 years at the helm of world football. Instead, he exits FIFA in disgrace. Forced to miss the meeting after his appeal against a "disloyal" payment to Michel Platini failed earlier this week, the 79-year-old leaves behind a legacy of scandal and corruption that the next president has to clean up to restore FIFA’s battered credibility.

This morning’s business was a largely muted affair, without FIFA’s banned former leaders in attendance. Platini and former Blatter’s former right-hand man Jerome Valcke are also banned for six and 12 years respectively. The uncharismatic interim FIFA chief Issa Hayatou conducted proceedings, never veering from his script, along with acting secretary general Markus Kattner.

Hayatou urged delegates to support the reforms in full in his congress address: "The future of FIFA is at stake after a year of crisis. But this future we can shape it, should not fill us with fear."

In something of an understatement, the African football chief said it would be a "difficult mission to restore trust" but FIFA’s 209 members should act now. "We need to seize the opportunity because it is our shared responsibility," he said.

Hayatou, IOC member from Cameroon, said the reforms would allow FIFA and football to prosper in the long run "and that the events of the past never happen again. We will set up a FIFA that is stronger, responsible and will win back the respect of everyone in the world."

Echoing comments made at last year’s congress – days after Swiss police raided Zurich's Baur au Lac hotel and arrested seven FIFA officials – IOC president Thomas Bach said FIFA delegates had "a great chance to turn the page and great chance to start this new chapter for football."

"We in the IOC know from our own bitter experience that this is not an easy process," Bach said, indirectly referring to the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic bid bribery scandal. "We know from our own history what it takes to rebuild credibility."

"Today you are electing your new team leader, you are deciding your new game strategy," Bach said, employing a long-winded football metaphor. "I hope that with the game that follows you will score the winning goals for football."

Carrard told the congress that "cultural change is fundamental to FIFA". He said the reforms were the foundation stone "on which the new president can build the future. It must not be considered the end of the process but the beginning of the reform process."

Acting FIFA secretary general Kattner said the aim was for FIFA to be considered "a modern trusted and professional sports organisation by 2018".

December 2018 is the target, a few months after the Russia World Cup, although that seems very optimistic given the ongoing U.S. and Swiss investigations into FIFA corruption that are likely to lead to more arrests and add to FIFA's malaise.

Written by Mark Bisson in Zurich, Switzerland.

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