Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa which has been devastated by an unprecedented series of multimillion dollar corruption scandals, has attacked “fake news” and alleged media “Fifa bashing” in his address to the congress in Bahrain on Thursday.
In a highly combative speech, despite further damage done to Fifa’s credibility and reputation for anti-corruption following the abrupt removal this week of both ethics committee chairmen, Infantino blamed the media for distorting the coverage of his attempts to rebuild the scandal-hit organisation. He said: “Sadly, the truth is not necessarily what is true, but what people believe. There is a lot of fake news and alternative facts about Fifa circulating. Fifa bashing has become a national sport in some countries.”
Addressing the assembled football associations from 209 countries worldwide – Guatemala and Kuwait are suspended – Infantino mixed an anti-corruption message with an attack on the media familiar from the denials of the Sepp Blatter years.
Infantino did not refer to any specific reports in the media, which have highlighted alleged corruption for years without realising the vast extent of the multimillion dollar criminal bribes and kickbacks now uncovered by the US Department of Justice investigations. He has faced criticism this week after the sudden removal of the ethics committee chairmen Hans-Joachim Eckert and Cornel Borbely, who said it “incapacitated” and “neutralised” Fifa’s anti-corruption efforts, and denounced it as political.
The German FA president Reinhard Grindel has said their replacement with new chairmen was Infantino’s decision, and there has been speculation that Infantino was angered by the ethics committee’s preliminary investigation into him last year, which cleared him of wrongdoing.
Fifa sources have denied that, pointed out that Uefa did not push for the renewal of Eckert and Borbely following the end of their four-year terms, and said there was a push in the Fifa council for diversity away from European men. That led to the appointment of the former president of the council of state in Columbia, Maria Claudia Rojas, to chair the ethics committee’s investigatory ‘chamber’ as well as Vassilios Skouris, the former president of the European court of justice, replacing Eckert as chairman of the ‘adjudicatory chamber’.
David Gill, the English FA’s representative on the FA council which recommended the two chairmen be replaced, told the Guardian that he had supported the vote, because their terms were up and Rojas and Skouris have impressive credentials. “All the FA was asked to do was to approve the recommendations of names put forward by the Fifa administration,” he said. “We did due diligence on their CVs and they look like well-qualified people to do the job.”
Infantino did not refer explicitly to the replacement of the chairmen or their strident criticism in his condemnation of “fake news”. He did make a forthright statement condemning corruption, however, saying that Fifa is cleaning up under his presidency.
In a passage, again not naming names but taken as an implied criticism of the Swiss law professor Mark Pieth and the former chair of the audit and compliance committee, Domenico Scala, who initiated many of the reforms, Infantino said: “Where were all these self-proclaimed good governance and compliance gurus who were supposed to control Fifa when all this was happening? They all miserably failed. It’s not me saying it. It’s the facts saying it. We will not accept any good governance lesson from any of these individuals who have miserably failed in protecting football, protecting Fifa, and in protecting football from Fifa.
“We are rebuilding Fifa’s reputation after all that happened, we have taken over an organisation which was at its deepest point,” added Infantino. “If there is anyone who is in the room who thinks he can abuse football and enrich himself – I have one message: Leave. Leave football now. We don’t want you.”
At that, there was restrained applause from the delegates in the hall.
Opening the congress, at the Bahrain international exhibition and convention centre in the Gulf island’s capital, Manama, Infantino thanked the Bahraini ruling family for “the warm welcome we have received in this country”, saying it was “an honour and a privilege for the world of football to be here in Bahrain.”
Shaikh Nasser bin-Hamad (bin-Isa) al-Khalifa, a member of the ruling family which has been widely criticised by human rights campaign groups following the brutal suppression of protests in Manama in 2011, welcomed delegates, saying it was “monumental” for the country to host Fifa.
Referring to Bahrain’s promotion of high-profile sports events, including hosting the F1 Grand Prix since 2004 and the new Bahrain Merida professional cycling team currently competing in the Giro d’Italia, Al-Khalifa said his government believes in “fair play and tolerance,” ”inclusion” and the “social change” which sport can promote. Now, hosting the Fifa congress, he said, ”adds another dimension to our national vision: an island participating in the success of global sports movements.”
After thanking Nasser and his brother, Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa, who is the president of the Bahrain Football Association and Asian Football Confederation, Infantino referred in his speech to Fifa’s human rights activity, which now includes an advisory board formed principally to assess the treatment of migrant workers building World Cup 2022 stadiums in Qatar.
“Fifa makes human rights a priority,” he said. “We need to promote human rights.”
Pursuing the theme of his presidency, that this is a “new Fifa,” reformed since he was elected last February following the ethics committee bans imposed on the former president Blatter and former Uefa president Michel Platini, Infantino said: “It is a transparent organisation … a deeply honest organisation.”
Discussing Fifa’s accounts, which reveal the organisation made a $369m loss in 2015-16, the mid-point of the four years leading to the 2018 World Cup which are projected to make a $100m profit overall, Infantino said: ”The figures are extremely solid. We don’t have to bullshit you about the figures.”
(Guardian service)
