Blatter: Confident and committed

Ahead of the second day of the Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting, when recommendations given by the Independent Governance Committee led by Mark Pieth will be discussed, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter spoke frankly to FIFA.com. President Blatter, how confident are you in the lead-up to tomorrow’s decisive Executive Committee meeting? I remain as confident and as committed as I have been from the beginning of this process. After the difficulties and challenges FIFA went through, I was convinced that we had to reform our organisation and I stressed that publicly, including the need for good governance, transparency and zero tolerance against wrongdoing. The FIFA Congress then gave me the mandate to lead this reform process in June 2011, and tomorrow we will discuss the main steps proposed by an independent committee led by Mark Pieth, a global leader in the area of governance and transparency. I am really looking forward to this. How far have we come in this reform process? The process began at the Congress in June. There, I already presented some of the key ideas for reform, including an independent, two-chamber Ethics Committee. One chamber would be able to investigate allegations and the other would be in charge of taking any judicial decisions. Following our Statutes and regulations, the Executive Committee later approved a road map for the reforms in October 2011 and only two months later, an Independent Governance Committee (IGC) led by Professor Pieth and his renowned team of experts in the field of governance and compliance started its work on concrete proposals. I am very pleased to note that one of the main points I mentioned nearly a year ago is now the crucial point in the recommendations made by the IGC. Tomorrow, Friday, it is the turn of the ExCo to decide if they support these reforms, to which I am absolutely committed. What does this mean in concrete terms? After the Executive Committee meeting, the proposed reforms will be brought to the attention of the FIFA Congress on 24 and 25 May 2012, where any amendments to the Statutes will have to be voted on. The reforms will have to be implemented step by step and I will do everything in my power to fulfil this promise. Rest assured, we will continue to follow the road map that we have established.