FIFA

From

Besides its worldwide institutions, there are six confederations recognized by FIFA which oversee the game in the different continents and regions of the world. National associations, and not the continental confederations, are members of FIFA. The continental confederations are provided for in FIFA's statutes, and membership of a confederation is a prerequisite to FIFA membership.

(AFC; 47 members)

(CAF; 56 members)

(CONCACAF; 41 members) (CONMEBOL; 10 members)

(OFC; 14 members)

(UEFA; 55 members) and their respective . The number of FIFA member associations is higher than the number of UN member states as FIFA has admitted associations from 23 non-sovereign entities as members in their own right, such as the four within the United Kingdom and politically disputed territories such as .[24]

The FIFA Working Committee of Small Nations has categorized potential FIFA members into three categories:

Independent states not in FIFA (, , , , , , , )

Non-independent territories (, , , , , , , , , , )

Politically sensitive areas (, , , ).

The are updated monthly and rank each team based on their performance in international competitions, qualifiers, and friendly matches. There is also a , updated four times a year.

Laws and governance

FIFA is in , and is an association established under the .

FIFA's supreme body is the , an assembly made up of representatives from each affiliated member association. Each national football association has one vote, regardless of its size or footballing strength. The Congress assembles in ordinary session once every year, and extraordinary sessions have been held once a year since 1998. Congress makes decisions relating to FIFA's governing statutes and their method of implementation and application. Only Congress can pass changes to FIFA's statutes. The congress approves the annual report, and decides on the acceptance of new national associations and holds elections. Congress elects the , its general secretary, and the other members of the in the year following the .[27]

FIFA Council – formerly called the FIFA Executive Committee and chaired by the president – is the main decision-making body of the organization in the intervals of congress. The council is composed of 37 people: the president; 8 vice presidents; and 28 members from the confederations, with at least one of them being a woman. The Executive Committee is the body that decides which country will host the World Cup.

The president and the general secretary are the main office holders of FIFA, and are in charge of its daily administration, carried out by the general secretariat, with its staff of approximately 280 members. is the current president, elected on 26 February 2016 at an extraordinary FIFA Congress session after former president was suspended pending a .

FIFA's worldwide organizational structure also consists of several other bodies, under the authority of the FIFA Council or created by Congress as standing committees. Among those bodies are the FIFA Emergency Committee, the , the Finance Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, and the Referees Committee.

The FIFA Emergency Committee deals with all matters requiring immediate settlement in the time frame between the regular meetings of the . The Emergency Committee consists of the FIFA president as well as one member from each confederation.

Administrative cost

FIFA publishes its results according to . The total compensation for the management committee in 2011 was 30 million for 35 people. Blatter, the only full-time person on the committee, earned approximately two million Swiss francs, 1.2 million in salary and the rest in bonuses. in June 2014 said the members of the committee had their salaries doubled from $100,000 to $200,000 during the year. The report also said leaked documents had indicated $4.4 million in secret bonuses had been paid to the committee members following the in .[37]

In May 2006, British investigative reporter ' book Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals () caused controversy within the football world by detailing an alleged international cash-for-contracts scandal following the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner (ISL), and revealed how some football officials have been urged to secretly repay the sweeteners they received. The book also alleged that vote-rigging had occurred in the fight for 's continued control of FIFA as the organization's president. Shortly after the release of Foul! a exposé by Jennings and BBC producer Roger Corke, screened on 11 June 2006, reported that Blatter was being investigated by Swiss police over his role in a secret deal to repay more than £1m worth of pocketed by football officials. , the former chairman of the English Football Association, described FIFA as an organization that "behaves like a family", highlighting the organization's "decades-long traditions of bribes, bungs and ". in the history of world football governance—joined Jennings, journalist Lisana Liburd and many others in exposing allegedly inappropriate allocations of money by CONCACAF, and drew connections between ostensible CONCACAF criminality and similar behaviours at FIFA. Since then, and in the light of fresh allegations of corruption by FIFA in late 2010,

In a further Panorama exposé broadcast on 29 November 2010, Jennings alleged that three senior FIFA officials, , and , had been paid huge bribes by ISL between 1989 and 1999, which FIFA had failed to investigate. Jennings claimed they appeared on a list of 175 bribes paid by ISL, totalling about $100 million. A former ISL executive said that there were suspicions within the company that they were only awarded the marketing contract for successive World Cups by paying bribes to FIFA officials. The programme also alleged that another current official, , has been repeatedly involved in reselling World Cup tickets to touts; Blatter said that FIFA had not investigated the allegation because it had not been told about it via 'official channels.' Panorama also alleged that FIFA requires nations bidding to host the World Cup to agree to implement special laws, including a blanket for FIFA and its corporate sponsors, and limitation of . Contrary to FIFA's demands, these conditions were revealed by the government, resulting in them being told by FIFA that their bid could be adversely affected. Following Jennings' earlier investigations, he was banned from all FIFA press conferences, for reasons he claimed had not been made clear. The accused officials failed to answer questions about his latest allegations, either verbally or by letter.

and , head of England's World Cup bid, criticized the timing of the broadcast, three days before FIFA's decision on the host for the , on the grounds that it might damage England's bid; the voters included officials accused by the programme.

In June 2011, it came to light that the had started inquiry proceedings against FIFA honorary president into claims of bribery. Panorama alleged that Havelange accepted a $1 million 'bung' in 1997 from ISL. The IOC stated that it "takes all allegations of corruption very seriously and we would always ask for any evidence of wrongdoing involving any IOC members to be passed to our ethics commission". said that corruption is endemic to FIFA leadership, and that the organization should be abolished for the good of the game. He said that currently, FIFA is in charge of both monitoring corruption in football matches, and marketing and selling the sport, but that two "separate" organizational bodies are needed: an organizational body that monitors corruption and match-fixing and the like, and an organization that's responsible for marketing and sponsorships and selling the sport. Zirin said the idea of having a single organization that's responsible for both seems highly ineffective and detrimental to the sport.

Guilty pleas

Between 2013 and 2015 four individuals, and two sports television rights corporations pleaded guilty to United States financial misconduct charges. The pleas of , , Daryan Warner, Darrell Warner, and were unsealed in May 2015. also imposed a 6-year "harshest sentence ever received for match-fixing" on match-fixer Eric Ding who had bribed three Lebanese FIFA football officials with prostitutes as an inducement to fix future matches that they would officiate, as well as perverting the course of justice.[60]

Indictments and arrests

Fourteen FIFA officials and marketing executives were indicted by the in May 2015. The officials were in Switzerland and are in the process of extradition to the US. Specific charges (brought under the act) include , , and .

FIFA's top officials were arrested at a hotel in Switzerland on suspicion of receiving bribes totalling $100m (£65m). The US Department of Justice stated that nine FIFA officials and four executives of sports management companies were arrested and accused of over $150m in bribes., stated in May 2015 that England should boycott the 2018 World Cup against corruption in FIFA and military aggression by Russia.[64]

2018 and 2022 World Cup bids

FIFA's choice to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has been widely criticized by media. It has been alleged that some FIFA inside sources insist that the Russian kickbacks of cash and gifts given to FIFA executive members were enough to secure the Russian 2018 bid weeks before the result was announced. exposés, ., that there was evidence from The Sunday Times newspaper that of Cameroon and of were paid by Qatar. Qatar has categorically denied the allegations, as have Hayatou and Anouma., that the British newspaper has agreed to bring its whistle-blowing source to meet senior FIFA officials, who will decide whether to order a new investigation into alleged World Cup bidding corruption. "[The Sunday Times] are happy, they agreed that they will bring this whistleblower here to Zürich and then we will have a discussion, an investigation of this", Blatter said.

Specifically, the whistle-blower claims that FIFA executive committee members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma were paid $1.5 million to vote for Qatar. The emirate's bid beat the United States in a final round of voting last December. Blatter did not rule out reopening the 2022 vote if corruption could be proved, but urged taking the matter "step by step". The FIFA president said his organization is "anxiously awaiting" more evidence before asking its ethics committee to examine allegations made in Britain's Parliament in early May 2011.

Hayatou, who is from Cameroon, leads the and is a FIFA vice president. Anouma is president of . The whistle-blower said Qatar agreed to pay a third African voter, , for his support. The was later suspended from voting after a FIFA ethics court ruled he solicited bribes from undercover Sunday Times reporters posing as lobbyists. Blatter said the newspaper and its whistle-blower would meet with FIFA secretary general, , and legal director, Marco Villiger.

Allegations against FIFA officials have also been made to the UK Parliament by , the former head of England's bid and the English Football Association. Triesman told the lawmakers that four long-standing FIFA executive committee members—, , and —engaged in "improper and unethical" conduct in the 2018 bidding, which was won by Russia. All six FIFA voters have denied wrongdoing. suggested that the being awarded to Russia was planned before the voting, and that the would have then been awarded to the United States. However, this plan changed after the election ballot, and the 2022 World Cup was awarded to instead of the U.S.

According to leaked documents seen by The Sunday Times, Qatari state-run television channel Al Jazeera secretly offered $400 million to FIFA, for broadcasting rights, just 21 days before FIFA announced that Qatar will hold the 2022 World Cup. The contract also documented a secret TV deal between FIFA and Qatar's state run media broadcast Al Jazeera that $100 million will also be paid into a designated FIFA account only if Qatar wins the World Cup ballot in 2010. An additional $480 million was also offered by the State of Qatar government, three years after the initial offer, which brings the amount to $880 million offered by Qatar to host the 2022 world cup. The documents are now part of the bribery inquiry by Swiss Police. FIFA refused to comment on the inquiry and responded to The Sunday Times in an email and wrote "allegations linked to the Fifa World Cup 2022 bid have already been extensively commented by Fifa, who in June 2017 published the Garcia report in full on Fifa.com. Furthermore, please note that Fifa lodged a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, which is still pending. Fifa is and will continue to cooperate with the authorities". called for payments from Al Jazeera to be frozen and launch an investigation into the apparent contract since the contract "appears to be in clear breach of the rules".[80]

2011 FIFA presidential election

FIFA announced on 25 May 2011 that it had opened the investigation to examine the conduct of four officials— and Jack Warner, along with (CFU) officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester—in relation to claims made by executive committee member, . confederation, has alleged that violations were committed under the FIFA code of ethics during a meeting organized by Bin Hammam and Warner on 10 and 11 May—the same time Lord Triesman had accused Warner of demanding money for a World Cup 2018 vote—in relation to the 2011 FIFA presidential election,, allegedly offered financial incentives for votes cast in his favour during the presidential election. As a result of the investigation both Bin Hammam and Warner were suspended. Bin Hammam also responded by writing to FIFA, protesting unfair treatment in suspension by the FIFA Ethics Committee and FIFA administration., said that he was given $40,000 in cash, alleged that he was given $40,000 in cash for "development projects" as an incentive to vote for Bin Hammam.[91]

Response to allegations

After being re-elected as president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter responded to the allegations by promising to reform FIFA in wake of the bribery scandal, with , CEO of the in South Africa, saying there is great expectation for reform. is being tipped for a role on the newly proposed 'Solutions Committee', and former player was also being linked with a role.

secretary general said he hopes for "concrete" measures to be taken by the world game's authority. Saying that "the UEFA executive committee has taken note of the will of FIFA to take concrete and effective measures for good governance ... [and is] following the situation closely." president commented on the situation by saying that he believes FIFA "can emerge stronger" from its worst ever crisis, stating that "I will not point a finger and lecture ... I am sure FIFA can emerge stronger and from within"., , and .

Australian Sports Minister said it was clear FIFA needed to change, saying "there is no doubt there needs to be reform of FIFA. This is something that we're hearing worldwide", with accusing FIFA of "scamming" the country out of the A$46 million (US$35 million) it spent on the , saying that "until the investigation into FIFA has been completed, Australia must hold off spending any more taxpayers' money on any future World Cup bids.", president of the , also called on FIFA to re-examine the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar., which had called on FIFA to postpone the election pending a full independent investigation, renewed its call on FIFA to change its governance structure. football player was critical of FIFA in light of the corruption scandal, comparing members of the board to dinosaurs. He said "Fifa is a big museum. They are dinosaurs who do not want to relinquish power. It's always going to be the same." criticized the organization, saying, "FIFA has fallen far short of a credible demonstration that it recognizes the many problems it faces, that it has the will to solve them, that it is willing to be transparent about what it is doing and what it finds, and that its conduct in the future will be such that the public can be confident in the governance of the sport."[103]

2018 revision of code of ethics

In 2018, FIFA revised its code of ethics to remove corruption as one of the enumerated bases of ethical violations. clause that those offences could not be pursued after a ten-year period. Alexandra Wrage, a former member of the FIFA governance committee and an expert in anti-bribery compliance, said that of the revision that "the real value to FIFA is the this will have on critics".[104]