FIFA President Gianni Infantino Accused Of Personal Greed

 

New FIFA president Gianni Infantino faced damning accusations of personal greed and killing the corruption-plagued body's entire reform process as one of his key aides dramatically resigned in protest. Just when he promised the world that he was the man to clean up FIFA, Infantino, three months into the job, came under fire for taking on even more power than his disgraced predecessor Sepp Blatter and aligning himself with FIFA's toxic past.

In a move reminiscent of the bad old days, Infantino launched a surreptitious 11th-hour power grab at FIFA's Congress in Mexico on Friday which, in one fell swoop, gave him unprecedented control of all the organisation's independent supervisory bodies including the ethics committee whose bans have brought down a string of corrupt power-brokers. Without any prior warning, Congress members approved a recommendation to allow FIFA's new-look Council, effectively run by Infantino, to sack any members of judiciary bodies at any point within the next 12 months, robbing them of their independence.

Those in the firing line theoretically included ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, investigative chief Cornel Borbely and, most notably of all, audit and compliance chairman Domenico Scala – FIFA's financial watchdog who drafted the first set of reforms and supervised integrity checks on suspect Fifa officials.

It was learnt that Scala, who also ran FIFA's compensation committee, was deliberately targeted for refusing to agree to Infantino's inflated pay demands. Sources close to several federations say Infantino, whose contract is believed to remain unsigned, opposed the $2million annual salary being offered to him since it was less than Blatter had earned. Infantino is understood to have sought revenge on Scala in front of the entire FIFA membership after what one official described as a classic night of the long knives.

On Saturday, after intense discussions, Scala resigned in protest at Infantino's ambush tactics that blew a giant hole in his claim he was leading FIFA into a new era of credibility and transparency. Scala said he others had been factually deprived of their independence and are in danger of becoming auxiliary agents of those whom they should actually supervise. In a statement, Fifa said it regretted Scala's decision and argued he had misinterpreted the purpose of the decision taken.

The statement reads “Mr. Scala has made unfounded claims which are baseless. FIFA is focused on reform and the path forward as evidenced by the appointment of a new FIFA Secretary General. This undermines a central pillar of the good governance of FIFA and destroys a substantial achievement of the reforms. For this reason, I herewith declare my immediate resignation as President of the Audit and Compliance Committee of FIFA. The contentious regulation change was virtually smuggled through with no explanation and no debate”.