FIFA Asked To Stop Gianni Infantino Re-standing For Presidency Over ‘Clear Term-Limit Violation’

A letter has been sent to FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee calling for the organization to rule Gianni Infantino ineligible to stand for another term during next year’s FIFA presidential elections.

The complaint has been made by FairSquare, a non-profit organization and advocacy group which says it promotes “better, more democratic governance to prevent sporting institutions contributing to harm and suffering”.

The organization, which has become one of the foremost pressure groups on Infantino’s presidency, previously submitted in December an eight-page complaint to FIFA’s Ethics Committee alleging “repeated breaches” of FIFA’s duty of political neutrality by its president, Infantino, while also requesting an investigation into the process that saw United States President Donald Trump receive .

That complaint has since received the backing of the Norwegian Football Federation, which asked the committee to adjudicate on whether Infantino had violated FIFA statutes.

Since then, the 56-year-old’s presidency has been mired in controversy and scandal, most notably surrounding the suspension of U.S. forward Folarin Balogun’s ban during the World Cup and then his clandestine plot to sell stakes in FIFA’s events and competitions to Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital. Infantino’s re-election hopes have also been hampered, with UEFA at war with the FIFA president and both Concacaf and the Asian confederation also calling his leadership into question.Will Infantino keep his job as FIFA President?

Infantino entered office in 2016 following FIFA’s corruption scandals.

FIFA presidents are limited to three terms in office, but in 2022, he declared his first term did not count as it was deemed to be completing Sepp Blatter’s interrupted final term, rather than a term in itself which should count towards the maximum of three.

The FairSquare letter, sent on August 13,  is addressed to three members of a FIFA Review Committee which falls under the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee.

The letter, seen by The Athletic, reads: “We are writing to request that you‬ rule Mr. Infantino ineligible to run again for the FIFA Presidency on the basis that he is already serving‬ his third and final term. A previous decision of the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee to‬ discount his first term clearly violates the letter and purpose of the FIFA statutory provision on presidential term limits.‬”

The letter argues that the potential fourth term of office “appears to have been‬ enabled on the basis of a decision or opinion issued by the Governance, Audit and Compliance‬ Committee in 2022.”

It continues: “On 16 December 2022, the FIFA Council held a‬ meeting in Doha, Qatar, after which FIFA published a‬‭ press release‬‭ which referred to this decision:‬ ‘The FIFA Council also unanimously confirmed its agreement with the view of the Governance, Audit‬ & Compliance Committee that the period between 2016 and 2019 does not count as a term of office‬ for the current FIFA President, who is therefore about to end his first term.’”

However, FairSquare say that a report from the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee provided to the FIFA Council has never been made available publicly and that a lack of information has been shared by FIFA on the matter. It argues that as Infantino was elected via an Extraordinary Congress in 2016, FIFA’s statutes should be interpreted as him having served three terms by next year.

‬The letter says: “Neither the FIFA Statutes nor the FIFA Governance Regulations make any provision for a‬ presidential term to be discounted because it did not last for the maximum period of four years.

“The‬ statutes explicitly state that ‘no person may serve as President for more than three terms of office’ without making any distinction as to those terms of office. The letter of the rule is clear and does not‬ provide for any exception based on the complete or incomplete nature of the term of office, or with‬ respect to the type of Congress — Ordinary or Extraordinary — at which the election took place.‬”

FairSquare argues that “an interpretation that would discount the first three years of office would also run contrary to the spirit‬ and purpose of the rule.”

It says the rule exists following recommendations by the 2016 FIFA Reform Committee which proposed “significant modifications to its institutional structure and‬ operational processes are necessary to prevent corruption, fraud, self-dealing and to make the‬ organisation more transparent and accountable.”

The letter points out that it “should be noted that‬ Mr Infantino served as UEFA’s representative on the 2016 FIFA Reform Committee.”

The letter also expresses fears that a FIFA president could misuse their position within the FIFA Council to call elections early before a full term, meaning they could theoretically “remain in power indefinitely”.

“In view of Mr Infantino’s various abuses of‬ power and the failure of the FIFA Council to hold him to account, such a scenario is plausible,” the letter writes.

The letter also states that the composition and leadership of the Governance, Audit and Compliance‬ Committee, and the Review Committee that sits as a sub-committee within it, have changed since‬ 2022 and that the decision taken in 2022 may not reflect the current position of the Review‬ Committee.

The letter therefore asks the current incumbents to “rule Mr Infantino ineligible to run for‬ the FIFA Presidency on the basis that it would constitute his fourth term of office and therefore be in violation of the FIFA Statutes.‬”

COURTESY: nytimes.com