It has taken less than 80 days for Gianni Infantino’s claim to be leading FIFA into a new era to be publicly undermined.
Infantino was plunged into damage limitation mode on Saturday after a significant figure behind the clean-up of FIFA — independent compliance and audit head Domenico Scala — quit with a stinging rebuke about the world soccer body president’s conduct.
It left Friday’s bold declaration by Infantino that FIFA’s crisis had ended looking like his own premature “mission accomplished” moment.
Photo: Reuters
It was little wonder Infantino looked so elated when he told delegates: “I can officially inform you here, the crisis is over.”
That claim came after the previous year’s FIFA Congress was rocked by the arrests of high-ranking executives.
Infantino had sprung two unexpected moves on the membership that gave the impression of shoring up his fledgling presidency.
While relaxed and preparing to fly home after days of generous hospitality, delegates were potentially blindsided by being asked to approve a change to the statutes that effectively saw Infantino seize control of FIFA’s ethics organs.
Only one member association voted against handing FIFA’s ruling council the power — if needed — to fire Scala, ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert and investigator Cornel Borbely.
Despite Eckert and Borbely only discovering the clandestine action when it appeared on congress screens, they said they do not expect it to affect their work.
However, Scala said the council headed by Infantino could now impede investigations with the threat of dismissal hanging over ethics officials.
In his resignation statement, Scala said Infantino’s move “undermines a central pillar of the good governance of FIFA and it destroys a substantial achievement of the reforms.”
FIFA said the rebuke was “unfounded.”
The independence of the oversight bodies is widely seen as essential for FIFA to reassure external investigators that it can weed out offenders. They helped to ban both former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke in the past six months.
Valcke’s replacement as FIFA’s top administrator was another disclosure bounced on the congress.
Fatma Samoura had initially appeared to be a savvy choice for its secretary general in a job that had never been previously filled by a woman or non-European.
However, it quickly became clear that the Senegalese UN veteran had not emerged from an open recruitment process and lacks the business background seen as even more essential in the reshaped post, following reforms that Infantino helped to mould last year.
Although Samoura seems well qualified to overhaul the development division, Infantino has the experience required to lead on television contracts and sponsorship negotiations after almost a decade as UEFA general secretary.
Samoura’s knowledge of the soccer world also came under question when she told French media on Saturday that, when she first met Infantino in November last year, he was still campaigning for Michel Platini.
Platini had in fact been suspended by FIFA the previous month in one of the organization’s most high-profile disciplinary decisions and Infantino was already a presidential candidate.
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