Summary of Responses from FIFA IGC to my Interview Requests

Last month I emailed 5 (of the 12) members of the FIFA Independent Governance Committee to request an opportunity to conduct an on-the-record interview. Michael J. Hershman was the only member to agree to an interview, which I published here on October 1.

The results of my requests (which I followed up on several times over a period of weeks) for the other four members (chosen because I could easily find their email addresses) are as follows:

• Sunil Gulati -- Initial agreement to speak off record, then declined after seeing my questions.
• Peter H. Goldsmith -- Initial agreement to be interviewed via email, no response after receiving questions
• James M. Klotz -- Declined to be interview
• Alexandra Wrage -- No response to interview request

Now, I'm no one important or special, however the 20% response rate from the FIFA IGC does not lend me to conclude that the IGC is operating under a spirit of openness and transparency. I've not seen interviews with real members of the media of anyone on the IGC aside from Mark Pieth (and once Wrage), so perhaps I am not alone.