Budapest, May 25 (Xinhua-ANI): The 62nd FIFA Congress finished on Friday in Budapest with delegates backing measures to reform structures within the world football governing body and pledging to continue increasing accountability and transparency.
Reform was the key theme of the annual congress in the wake of financial and corruption scandals which rocked FIFA during the 2011 bidding campaigns to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
"We are going forward, we are regulating ourselves," insisted FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter throughout the two-day meeting.
In the latest in a series of measures, dubbed a "road map" by Blatter, FIFA's Ethics Committee will be restructured with a new system of two chambers investigatory and adjudicatory each with an independent chairman.
The creation of an Audit and Compliance Committee which will increase the responsibilty of the former Audit Committee by adding compliance to its activities was also approved, it too with an independent chairman, while a new Code of Conduct will also be adopted within months. A complaints procedure has been improved while procedural rules will now be defined in the new Code of Conduct.
"FIFA needed to adapt, otherwise you have risks of abuses," said Mark Pieth, a Swiss criminologist appointed as an independent chairman of FIFA's governance committee, at a press conference after the event. "FIFA has decided to do it, to take positive steps to self-regulate, this is the critical point," he said.
A scandal about court files allegedly naming senior FIFA officials who took payments from bankrupt broadcaster ISL has also dogged FIFA for over a decade. Blatter has insisted Swiss court restrictions are to blame for the delay in releasing the court papers and told reporters on Friday, "We in FIFA have nothing to hide."
Less controversial congress highlights included the backing of initatives to professionalize refereeing and the admission of South Sudan as FIFA's 209th and newest member association after the procedure for admitting new members was amended.
The appointment of the first ever woman on FIFA's Executive Committee was also ratified on Friday with Lydia Nsekera from Burundi co-opted onto the Committee until the next election in 2013.
Delegates also committed to a partnership with the Nobel Peace Centre, one that will see the introduction of a new procedure known as the "Handshake for Peace". In all upcoming FIFA competitions including the Club World Cup in December, next year's FIFA Confederation Cup and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, referees and team captains will meet to shake hands directly after the final whistle as well as before a game.
Congress also approved a 75 million dollars Club Protection Program on behalf of member associations which will see FIFA indemnify clubs of injured players in all major international matches.
Simone Farina, the Italian second division player who recently reported to the police an attempt at match-fixing was appointed as a FIFA ambassador, while Ronald K. Noble, Secretary General of INTERPOL, which entered into a 10-year cooperation agreement with FIFA in 2011, addressed the Congress on efforts to combat match- fixing.
Blatter referred in his presidential address to concerns with Brazil's preparations to hold the World Cup in 2014. "It's not as easy as we hoped it would be, but we can trust the government and football in Brazil for the organization of the World Cup and the Confederations Cup," he said.
A recent report from the Brazilian government said that up to 40 percent of construction work including necessary infrastructure work for the 2014 World Cup has not yet started.
"We will make a list of priority projects and put all the energy in those ones which are key for the organization of the World Cup,"" FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke told reporters afterwards.
FIFA's decision at a pre-Congress Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday to allow its 209 member associations to play friendly matches with Kosovo was one of the most controversial measures of the week, with both Michel Platini, president of European football 's governing body UEFA, and Serbian Football President Tomislav Karadzic unhappy with the decision.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but is a member of neither UEFA nor the United Nations - despite being recognized by 90 countries, including 22 out of 27 EU countries.
In a statement on the Serbian FA website, Karadzic said: " Granting Kosovo full accession to UEFA and FIFA is out of the question because that decision would clearly contravene UEFA's statutes, which stipulate that one can join UEFA only if recognised as an independent country by the United Nations."
Blatter said FIFA would hold talks with both UEFA the Serbian FA on June 29 in Zurich and decide on what he called the " modalities" of how to implement the decision, for example if they can play home matches inside or outside the country. (Xinhua-ANI)
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