FIFA Ethics ... Still A Joke

Blatter Says FIFA Congress Must Enact Changes to Prevent Crimes

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said soccer’s governing body must enact changes to allow the sport to continue the fight against corruption even as some former advisers question the group’s reform plans.

The ruling body’s 209 members will vote on proposed changes this week at FIFA’s annual meeting on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius this week. Blatter said the process follows an “extensive consultation process” that started in 2011, the year when the Zurich-based body was forced by stakeholders including sponsors of its $5 billion World Cup to reform following graft allegations.

“We have a democratic process in place, we follow it,” Blatter said in an interview with FIFA.com. “Between 2011 and 2013, I made a lot of effort to take this reform process as far as I could, but it is now up to the FIFA Congress to decide on these measures.”

Former advisers have criticized FIFA, which Blatter has headed since 1998, for not doing enough to crack down on corruption. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Bloomberg.

Kicking Back Comments: It is well summarized in this quote:

"Alexandra Wrage, president of Trace International, a non-profit organization in Canada that provides anti-bribery compliance advice to multinational companies, left the advisory group created by Blatter to suggest reforms. She claimed the work was the “least productive project” of her career."

Sounds about right.