BERNE: A 12-member committee set up by FIFA to draw up far-reaching reforms to the organisation in the wake of a corruption scandal met for the first time in Berne on Wednesday.

Headed by Swiss lawyer Francois Carrard, the committee will first hear from Domenico Scala, who is chairman of FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee, according to an informed source.

No agenda details were released.

Carrard, 77, was appointed by FIFA on August 11 to lead the Reform Committee after the corruption scandal erupted in May, when seven football officials were arrested at a Zurich hotel on the eve of a FIFA Congress.

The seven FIFA officials were among 14 people facing charges in the United States over more than $150 million (137.87 million euros) of bribes for marketing and broadcasting contracts.

In parallel, Swiss investigators are looking into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch will join her counterpart from Switzerland, Michael Lauber, for a news conference in Zurich on Sept 14 about their separate investigations.

The joint conference will explain the “status of the two criminal proceedings,” Swiss officials said in a statement on Tuesday. Though the cases are separate, the officials involved are cooperating in their investigations.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter was re-elected for a fifth term at the Zurich congress but, under pressure from the arrests, he suddenly announced he would stand down next February when a new election for his post would be held.

Subsequently he announced that a reform committee taskforce would be set up to draw up a list of changes.

Blatter denies any wrong-doing and Carrard has gone on record as saying that there was not a shred of evidence against his fellow Swiss.

Carrard, who previously was in charge of implementing reforms at the International Olympic Committee in the wake of the bribery scandal-hit Winter Olympics of 2002, is due to present his reform proposals to a FIFA congress meeting on February 26, when Blatter will officially stand down.

But he lost credibility with those seeking more radical change when he told the Swiss newspaper La Matin Dimanche that criticism of Blatter was “unfair” and that the corruption cases involve “only a few rogues”.

Carrard also came under fire for claiming that football in the US is “just an ethnic sport for girls in schools,” as he questioned why the US was investigating.

The Reform Committee, which will sit for two days, comprises two officials from each of the six FIFA confederations.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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