19/12/2012 Culture, Science, Education and Media
Strasbourg, 19.12.2012 - “Good governance of sport is affected by what is at stake in terms of power and by the opaque nature of decision-taking processes. And FIFA bears a particular responsibility. We are committed to encouraging the reforms which should give this world body the transparency and sense of responsibility that it lacks,” said Gvozden Flego (Croatia, SOC), Chair of the PACE Culture Committee, speaking this morning at the opening of a hearing in Paris on the governance of FIFA.
Participants considered measures which might improve transparency, by reducing the risk of corruption and abuse of authority, as well as possible mechanisms to monitor the integrity of an international federation which needs to be beyond reproach. The ongoing reforms should answer the questions of “which model” and “which governance” our societies would like football to have in the 21st century.
Theo Zwanziger, a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, and Jérôme Champagne, its former Deputy Secretary General, took part in the meeting, as did Sylvia Schenk, from Transparency International, and Jean-Loup Chappelet, a professor from the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP).
The hearing followed the adoption in April 2012 by the Parliamentary Assembly (comprising 318 members of the parliaments of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe) of a resolution calling on FIFA to “fully investigate the facts underlying the various scandals which, in recent years, have tarnished its image and that of international football”.
The Assembly appended to its resolution a complete set of guidelines on good governance and ethics in sport, which also relate to the fight against corruption. These guidelines are addressed to national and international sports bodies and to governments.
Michael Connarty (United Kingdom, SOC), whom the committee has appointed as rapporteur on follow-up to Resolution 1875 (2012) on “Good governance and ethics in sport”, expressed a wish to be able to have further exchanges with FIFA by meeting its governing bodies in the near future, particularly FIFA President Joseph Blatter and the members of the Ethics Committee and Independent Governance Committee.