Fifa still led by a crook, apparently... | Vital Football

Fifa still led by a crook, apparently...

Spursex

Spursex

Alert Team
Fifa president Gianni Infantino facing legal action

Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter
Friday July 31 2020, 12.01am, The Times
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Infantino had promised a new era for Fifa after years of scandal
ATTILA KISBENEDEK/GETTY

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Fifa’s tattered reputation has been dealt another blow after criminal proceedings were opened against its president, Gianni Infantino, by a Swiss special prosecutor.
The proceedings centre on secret meetings that Infantino had with Switzerland’s discredited attorney general Michael Lauber, who last week offered his resignation.
Infantino promised a new era for Fifa after years of corruption scandals when he was elected to succeed Sepp Blatter in 2016, but this development will be a huge embarrassment to the Swiss-Italian lawyer.
Infantino met Lauber twice in 2016, soon after his election, and again in June 2017, while the attorney general controlled a sprawling investigation into corruption linked to Fifa and football officials worldwide.
A special prosecutor has concluded that “there are indications of criminal conduct” in relation to the meetings.


Lauber offered to resign last week when a federal court upheld allegations that he lied about the meeting with Infantino. The pair told investigators that they could not recall what was said in the discussions — but if there are suspicions that Infantino was attempting in any way to influence the Fifa corruption probe then that could be a breach of Swiss law.
“On the basis of general life experience, such a case of collective amnesia is an aberration,” the federal court ruling said last week.
Infantino has insisted that he was trying to help with the investigation.
He said yesterday: “As president of Fifa, it has been my aim from day one, and it remains my aim, to assist the authorities with investigating past wrongdoings at Fifa. Fifa officials have met with prosecutors in other jurisdictions across the world for exactly these purposes.”
After the meetings were revealed by emails from the Football Leaks cache, the Swiss government appointed Stefan Keller as a special prosecutor to investigate.
A statement from the federal prosecutors’ office said that Keller had uncovered “elements that make up reprehensible behaviour”.
Keller opened criminal proceedings against Infantino, as well as Valais prosecutor Rinaldo Arnold, and has sought authorisation to open a legal case against Lauber, too, but that needs permission from the Swiss parliament.
Keller found possible infractions that included abuse of public office, breach of official secrecy, “assisting offenders” and “incitement to these acts”, adding other criminal acts and proceedings could also be considered.
Suspects in such cases benefit from a presumption of innocence in Switzerland until legal proceedings are completed and no charges have been filed.
Blatter is also still the subject of criminal proceedings launched in 2015 after the arrests of dozens of football officials which have led to some of the most important Fifa officials during the Blatter era — from 1998 to 2015 — being indicted by the US justice department.
Michel Platini, who was the favourite to succeed Blatter and then served as Uefa president, was also suspended, which ended his chances of leading Fifa and his former lieutenant Infantino stepped into the void.
Infantino’s track record
Age 50
Background Born in Switzerland to Italian parents. He is fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, English and German. Qualified as a lawyer.
Career Joined Uefa in 2000 and became legal director in 2004. Appointed general secretary in 2009 under Michel Platini. Became Fifa president in 2016 after Sepp Blatter was impeached.
 
You couldn’t make it up , could you .
I love the term “collective amnesia”. It would seem there is a lot of it about .
back to the drawing board , but who is going to put themselves forward.
Do you fancy a bash at it Ex ? ...... I think ‘Arry would be in with a chance . Seems right up his street !
 
Although asked in jest (I presume!) it is a very interesting question. Fifa is rotten to the core and it's very difficult to change the culture of an organisation by a change of personnel, particularly if the new appointees are appointed from within the corrupt organisation or from one of their associations such as UEFA. But how does the football world get rid of Fifa? Who has the authority and standing amongst the football community?
 
Gary Onedaysoon said:
Although asked in jest (I presume!) it is a very interesting question. Fifa is rotten to the core and it's very difficult to change the culture of an organisation by a change of personnel, particularly if the new appointees are appointed from within the corrupt organisation or from one of their associations such as UEFA. But how does the football world get rid of Fifa? Who has the authority and standing amongst the football community?
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Fifa's charter says that congress (1 rep from each federation) must meet once a year to agree changes/new rules/approve finances, so essentially it is overseen by the 209 football federations - the imbalance comes from this in my opinion, as we have only the same weight in our vote as say for example Kuwait - so each and every president realise that the easiest way to stay in office is to appease/bribe 'invest' in regions and countries that have small to nothing football federations and sfa football leagues to speak of...

So the traditional football nations have been sidelined for a very long time and that has lent itself to corruption.

The counterbalance to this structure is of course this:

In addition to the Congress, FIFA has an executive committee, which serves as the decision-making assembly when the Congress is not in session. The executive committee is made up of the President, a General Secretary, 8 vice presidents, and 15 members. Each member serves terms of 4 years and, like the President, can be reelected. Representation on the executive committee is “based on economic and social importance of football for the respective continent and region”[8].
As it currently stands,

OFC gets one vice president

CONMEBOL and CONCACAF get one vice president and two members.

AFC and CAF get one vice president and three members

UEFA gets the most influence with two vice presidents and five members.

Ultimately, there is little outside scrutiny of the decision making and even less around the elections....

So, to answer the question the only was FIFA could be sidelined would be to start a whole new body; but Fifa's power comes from it's the financial muscle which is considerable. The largest question around FIFA is how all of the revenue it raises is being used. FIFA is, by law, a non-profit association, yet deals with billions of dollars annually, and is more realistically a corporation and should be run as one.

The power of the President is virtually the equivalent of a dictatorship, he can largely do what he pleases.
 
We missed a great opportunity when Russia and Qatar were announced by FIFA as hosting the 2 world cups. That was the time when we should have just said that the England and Wales FA no longer recognise FIFA as a governing body until they re-address every position in their company and every governance process. I think a bunch of countries would have backed us.

At the same time, you also know that the biggest brand in the football world is the English Premiership and that is where FIFA would be getting a large chunk of their revenues from. We should have starved them of that by cutting it off piece by piece. UEFA would have then been caught between a rock and hard place fearing we would do exactly the same to them. I also think the American billionaires that run the International Champions Cup (ICC) would have seen their opportunity.

I always says this, but FIFA gave us the compelling event that we needed to be highly disruptive for the good of the game. We should have launched a grenade into FIFA and severed all ties until they were prepared to have the right conversation.

We didn't have the minerals and are still controlled by en entity that adds very little value to the game.
 
muttley said:
We missed a great opportunity when Russia and Qatar were announced by FIFA as hosting the 2 world cups. That was the time when we should have just said that the England and Wales FA no longer recognise FIFA as a governing body until they re-address every position in their company and every governance process. I think a bunch of countries would have backed us.

At the same time, you also know that the biggest brand in the football world is the English Premiership and that is where FIFA would be getting a large chunk of their revenues from. We should have starved them of that by cutting it off piece by piece. UEFA would have then been caught between a rock and hard place fearing we would do exactly the same to them. I also think the American billionaires that run the International Champions Cup (ICC) would have seen their opportunity.

I always says this, but FIFA gave us the compelling event that we needed to be highly disruptive for the good of the game. We should have launched a grenade into FIFA and severed all ties until they were prepared to have the right conversation.

We didn't have the minerals and are still controlled by en entity that adds very little value to the game.
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We really wouldn't have had much (if any backing) perhaps Australia and the USA but that would have been the end of it - just look at the way we were attacked at he congress when we objected to FIFA's financial behaviour, we got the backing of absolutely no one and stodd entirely and utterly alone and was accused of 'attacking the 'family of FIFA'....

Sorry to disillusion, but fifa's income comes from the vast broadcasting and marketing deals for the World cups, I can't recall the exact figure but it's something like 90+%

If we'd severed our ties with fifa the statues say we cannot play any recognized international games anywhere in the world, even friendlies would have got the opposition into deep deep shite...

We tried to stand alone and got the support we can always rely on in the World stage..which is sweet dick all
 
I personally couldn’t give a monkeys about the World Cup and other meaningless competitions of FIFA and EUFA.

In the modern world I would prefer to see the major leagues in Europe get together to form their own association and competitions together with any other major leagues around the world such as the MSL and the South American equivalents...let Fifa have its World Cup without these countries which essentially makes their competition a joke and then gradually evolve a new structure for football with a central body in London or Manchester where the game began ( ok, I know the Russians or Chinese probably invented it first, but you know what I mean).
 
Spursex said:
Because the whole investigation was a white wash; fifa were outright threatening to leave Switzerland for good if he was found to have a case to answer, and teh Swiss couldn't allow that to happen
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Where would they go? China or Saudi?
 
Walthamstow wanderer said:
You couldn’t make it up , could you .
I love the term “collective amnesia”. It would seem there is a lot of it about .
back to the drawing board , but who is going to put themselves forward.
Do you fancy a bash at it Ex ? ...... I think ‘Arry would be in with a chance . Seems right up his street !
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Their memory loss suggests the onset of dementia. That’s good cause to retire both of them.
 
80deg16minW said:
Where would they go? China or Saudi?
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Sorry, don't know for certain, only that they were supposedly and are going to open an admin regional office in Saudi or Qatar and they were implicating that it might be a permanent new office because of the local incentives being offered
 
Spursex said:
Because the whole investigation was a white wash; fifa were outright threatening to leave Switzerland for good if he was found to have a case to answer, and teh Swiss couldn't allow that to happen
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Well if they find Blatter guilty, with the wealth of incriminating evidence they had, they weren't going to find Infantino or anyone else guilty either.
 
There are shifts in power structures underlying everything here. This time it was the threat of a move. Next time it will just be a move to a jurisdiction that will have the prevailing football powers up in arms.

It is happening in all aspects of life.
 
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