FIFA’s extensive reform package has officially become part of the world football governing body’s Statutes.
The reforms, passed unanimously at the Extraordinary Congress in Zurich in February, where Gianni Infantino was elected as President, include the establishment of a 37-strong FIFA Council to replace the current ruling Executive Committee.
The Council is due to have its first meeting on May 9th and 10th ahead of the organization’s Congress in Mexico City, which will include the current 25 Executive Committee members.
In a bid to address the gender imbalance within the governing body, six of these must be women.
The only current female Executive Committee member is Australian Moya Dodd.
If Bermuda Football Association President Larry Mussenden is successful in his bid to become the next CONCACAF President he will be one of the eight vice-presidents who will feature on the Council – three from UEFA and one each from the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
New additions to the Council will be discussed in the Mexican city before the deadline for the respective Confederations to elect their proposed members comes on September 30th.
The first full gathering of the new ruling body will then be held on October 13th and 14th.
The reforms also include limiting the head of the corruption-plagued organization to three four-year terms, meaning no President can serve for longer than 12 years.
The President, FIFA Council members and the yet-to-be-appointed secretary general will all have to disclose their salaries under the reforms.
The new Statures will also see the number of Standing Committees cut from 26 to nine to increase efficiency, while all members of such groups will have to undergo integrity checks, conducted by an independent FIFA Review Panel.
In order to improve transparency in the organization, a dedicated Football Stakeholders Committee will be established, made up of players and representatives from clubs and leagues, a crucial step to including those involved in the game at the top level of footballing governance.
Greater transparency, through the declaration of the sums of money earned by the top brass, will also come into effect, along with a new human rights statute.
The proposals were developed by the FIFA Reform Committee, led by Swiss lawyer François Carrard, and were approved by the Executive Committee last December, who then urged the voting Member Associations to pass the package at the Extraordinary Congress.
The changes to the governance of FIFA came amid the worst crisis to ever hit the organization, with 41 officials and entities having been indicted by the United States Department of Justice on various corruption charges.
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and current UEFA chief Michel Platini were initially banned from all footballing activity for eight years in December for a series of ethics breaches before their suspensions were reduced to six on appeal earlier this year.
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