The Way FIFA Reform Ends

Kier Radnege reports from Tokyo that FIFA has laid out the remaining steps in its reform process. The work of the IGC and its chair Mark Pieth is apparently over:

All final decisions on the details of FIFA’s reform process will be decided by world football insiders; the work and influence of governance expert Mark Pieth is at an end writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

This is FIFA’s destiny after the governing executive committee, in Tokyo today, heard an update on the process from German exco member Theo Zwanziger.

The former German federation president heads a working group set up by the exco in September to consult the 209 member associations on reform proposals.

How much influence individual FAs may have is questionable; the group comprises ‘only’ the general secretaries and legal directors of the six regional confederations.

Reform advocates, critical of FIFA’s failure to match the pace promised by president Sepp Blatter at the 2011 Congress, will be concerned that assessment of the most delicate issues will be left to a small group of senior figures.

Zwanziger is among those scheduled to testify before the Council of Europe next week on FIFA governance issues. Hopefully he will address the state of reform and the CoE will follow up his testimony with some inform questions.

Earlier this year I assembled a mid-term "report card" on FIFA's reform effort. It is not looking like FIFA has done much to raise their final grades, and time is running out.