ALL CANDIDATES SHOULD COMMIT TO INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT FOR FIFA REFORMS
Today Cobus de Swardt, managing director of Transparency International sent the following letter to the head of all 209 Football Associations (FA) that are members of FIFA, world football’s governing body, asking them to support FIFA presidential candidates “with outstanding personal records of integrity and who align themselves with key recommendations for governance reform in FIFA.”
Transparency International believes FIFA reform must be led by an independent reform commission to review all new governance arrangements and that the new president should support this effort. Give back the Game: How to fix FIFA identifies seven key steps to help FIFA win back the trust of the public and stop corruption at FIFA.
The deadline for FIFA presidential candidates to submit their documents, which must include nominations from five FAs, is 26 October, 2015. The 209 Football Associations will vote for a new president in February 2016.
22 October 2015
Dear national Football Association members,
I am writing to you cordially as the Managing Director of Transparency International (TI), the global civil society movement leading the fight against corruption through more than 100 national chapters worldwide. In the past TI has commented about the need for reform in football governance and presented FIFA with detailed recommendations based on our experience on how to tackle corruption risks in both the public and private sectors. We strongly believe that FIFA’s member associations can and will play an important role in delivering this reform.
We want to urge each national football association, as member associations of FIFA, to support FIFA presidential candidates in the upcoming election with outstanding personal records of integrity and who align themselves with key recommendations for governance reform in FIFA. These include our principles of transparency and accountability for the future administration of FIFA. In the past, FIFA has not published important information about its ethics investigations – something that we believe must change.
We would further welcome public expressions from you in support of these principles in advance of FIFA’s Extraordinary Congress in FIFA 2016 where decisions on FIFA’s future will be made.
When the candidates are announced we will be asking each of them to sign our Declaration against Corruption and to endorse good governance principles. In July 2015 we published recommendations to strengthen integrity at FIFA, Give Back the Game (ES).
We would invite you to contact us at fifa@transparency.org if you have any questions or would like to register your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
Kind regards,
Cobus de Swardt
Managing Director
Transparency International