Fifa new leader elections set for next year

Fifa recently announced that the elections to choose a new leader for the world football governing body will take place at an extraordinary congress to be held on 26 February next year.

According to Fifa, the executive committee had set a presidential election date to replace incumbent president Sepp Blatter, who resigned less than a week after winning his fifth term as president due to pressure and emerging scandals within the governing body.

Blatter and his executive committee pushed for a range of important reforms which were to be decided upon for the upcoming congress, and which would then underline Fifa’s commitment to better governance and greater accountability.

They also decided that the congress would take place in Zurich when a new Fifa president would be elected. The reform topics proposed include enhanced centralised integrity checks for executive committee members, the introduction of term limits, higher standards of governance at all levels of football structures, including confederations and member associations, as well as the individual disclosure of compensation.

The members welcomed the presentation on reforms delivered by Domenico Scala, independent chairman of the audit and compliance committee.

The executive committee, supported by the confederations, reiterated its unity and stated its firm commitment to reforms. It also stressed its full co-operation with the ongoing US and Swiss investigations.

To further strengthen this reform process, it was decided that a specific Fifa Task Force would be set up for ‘reforms’ to be chaired by a neutral chairman who should be appointed in consultation with the confederations’ presidents.

This task force would be composed of two representatives of each of the Asian Football Confederation, Confederation of African Football, Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football and the European Football Associations, as well as of one representative from each of the South American Football Confederation and the Oceania Football Confederation.

Concrete and comprehensive reform proposals should be elaborated for presentation at the next ordinary Fifa executive committee meeting, scheduled to be held in Zurich on 24 and 25 September, and thereafter submitted for approval at the extraordinary congress.

One major change had already been agreed upon by the executive committee at the last ordinary meeting on 26 May which was the revised bidding regulations for future Fifa World Cups.

As a result, future bids will have to meet a number of important additional criteria. In particular, Fifa will recognise the provisions of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and will make it compulsory for both contractual partners and those within the supply chain to comply with these provisions.

Furthermore, the bidding documents were also elaborated on, using guidance from the United Nations’ strategy for safeguarding against corruption in major public events.