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Fifa’s independent audit committee president resigns in protest at reforms Fifa’s independent audit committee president resigns in protest at reforms
(35 minutes later)
Domenico Scala, a Swiss businessman who led reforms to clean up scandal-plagued Fifa, has resigned from world football’s governing body, saying its independent watchdog committees had lost their independence. Gianni Infantino’s supposed new era of transparency and reform at Fifa is facing its first major challenge after the head of the president’s audit and compliance committee resigned over fears that new rules would compromise independence and impede investigations into corruption at football’s troubled world body.
Scala, the head of the audit and compliance committee, said the reform of Fifa, which is attempting to recover from the worst scandal in its history, had been undermined following a resolution by the Fifa Congress on Friday. Domenico Scala, who helped draw up the reforms that Infantino is banking on to help rebuild the governing body’s battered reputation, quit after Fifa members passed rules giving the new Fifa Council the power to appoint and dismiss members of independent committees until next year’s Congress in Kuala Lumpur.
The resolution, passed by 186 votes to one, gave the Fifa Council power to appoint or “dismiss any office holders” of its independent bodies such as the ethics committee and the audit and compliance committee. The new row will come as a hammer blow to Infantino’s attempts to position himself as the reforming president who can make Fifa credible again.
The Fifa Council has replaced the discredited executive committee, which went into meltdown after the US indictment that alleged a “World Cup of fraud” and led to a spate of arrests and the departure of Sepp Blatter. It is supposed to set the strategic direction for the organisation.
Friday’s decision appears to compromise the committees’ ability to fulfil their duties independently, at least until next year, and it has now led to Scala tendering his resignation.
Scala said in a statement: “On the occasion of its meeting on Friday, the Fifa Congress has delegated the election, or the dismissal respectively, of the members of the independent supervisory bodies – such as the ethics committee, the appeal committee, the audit and compliance committee and the governance committee – to the exclusive competence of the Fifa Council. With [Friday’s] decision, it will henceforth be possible for the Council to impede investigations against single members at any time, by dismissing the responsible committee members or by keeping them acquiescent through the threat of a dismissal.
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This effectively gives the council, which has replaced the former executive committee and is headed by Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, the right to fire ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, ethics investigator Cornel Borbely and Scala himself. “Thereby, those bodies are factually deprived of their independence and are in danger of becoming auxiliary agents of those whom they should actually supervise. . I am consternated about this decision, because it undermines a central pillar of the good governance of Fifa and it destroys a substantial achievement of the reforms. For this reason, I herewith declare my immediate resignation as president of the audit and compliance committee of Fifa.
The ethics committee, which was reformed in 2012, has investigated and banned more than a dozen top officials for ethics violations. Infantino said in his Congress speech on Friday that Fifa’s corruption crisis was over. “Fifa is back on track,” he told delegates. “So I can officially inform you here, the crisis is over.”
These have included former Fifa president Sepp Blatter and ex-secretary general Jerome Valcke as well as former executive committee members. He later defended the new rules, claiming that critics should wait and see what appointments were made to the independent committees before passing judgment.
Scala said the new rule “undermines a central pillar of the good governance of Fifa and it destroys a substantial achievement of the reforms“. Fifa later responded to Scala’s resignation by claiming he had “misinterpreted” its decision. “Fifa accepts Domenico Scala’s resignation as chairman of the audit and compliance committee with immediate effect,” its statement read. “Fifa regrets that Mr Scala has misinterpreted the purpose of the decision taken by the Congress. The decision was made to permit the Council to appoint members on an interim basis to the vacant positions of the new committees so they can start fulfilling their roles as part of the ongoing reform process until the next FIFA Congress in 2017. Mr Scala has made unfounded claims which are baseless.”
“It will henceforth be possible for the council to impede investigations against single members at any time, by dismissing the responsible committee members or by keeping them acquiescent through the threat of a dismissal,” added Scala.
“The bodies are factually deprived of their independence and are in danger of becoming auxiliary agents of those whom they should actually supervise.“
Eckert and Borbely could not immediately be reached for comment.
Previously, committee members could only be sacked by the congress, which is held annually and where each of Fifa’s 211 member associations hold one vote. Fifa council meetings can be called at short notice.
During a speech to the congress earlier on Friday, Scala admitted he had “made enemies“.
The vote, on an apparently simple administrative issue, was taken late in Friday’s meeting, the first since Gianni Infantino was elected as president in February.
Fifa passed a raft of reforms aimed at avoiding a repeat of the corruption scandal that has seen 42 football officials and entities indicted in the United States.
“We are following a democratic process,” Infantino said on Friday. “If we don’t act we are criticised and if we do act we are criticised, but we should also be criticised if we act in the wrong way. Do we wait one year for congress to dismiss committee members who should be changed? We need to be flexible to accomplish all the changes.”