FIFA tries again to clean itself up, critics unimpressed

By Brian Homewood ZURICH (Reuters) - FIFA will set up a new task force to propose reforms aimed at cleaning itself up, a move critics said was an inadequate response to the worst crisis in the 111-year history of soccer's governing body. The suggested reforms would include integrity checks for the all-powerful 25-member executive committee, term limits for top officials and public disclosure of their earnings, FIFA said. Similar reforms were proposed by an earlier independent governance committee set up in 2011 but were quietly shelved three years later. Critics pointed out that the 11-member task force would be drawn from the continental confederations whose members have been blamed for much of FIFA's recent troubles. "Instead of agreeing to a serious independent reform commission, FIFA today announced yet another task force made up of 10 confederation members and one independent chair who has not yet been named," said anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in a statement. "This will not be sufficient to win back trust in FIFA." "(FIFA) has promised reform many times before and failed dismally. They have failed fans and supporters today," added Transparency's director of communications Neil Martinson, describing FIFA as a "rotten democracy." FIFA said the task force's job would be to present "concrete and comprehensive reform proposals" to the next executive committee meeting in late September. This in turn would make recommendations to a FIFA Congress in February which has the power to alter its statutes. "My responsibility and mission is to make sure that when I come to the end of my career at the end of February, we can say that we have started to rebuild the reputation of FIFA," said outgoing president Sepp Blatter. However, he declined to immediately declare his earnings after twice being challenged to do so during a media conference. "You can ask me that question all afternoon if you want," he said. FIFA has been under pressure to carry out reforms following a series of scandals over the past few years. Several executive committee members, elected by continental confederations, have either been banned for unethical behavior or resigned while under investigation. Soccer's governing body was thrown into further turmoil in May when 14 sports marketing executives and soccer officials, including several from FIFA, were indicted in the United States on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud charges. Blatter was re-elected two days afterwards, but four days later said in a shock announcement that he would lay down his mandate and not stand again. He will remain in office until a new president is chosen at an extraordinary Congress on Feb. 26. FIFA said the new task force would include two representatives each from UEFA, CONCACAF, the African confederation CAF and the Asian confederation (AFC) and one each from the CONMEBOL and the Oceania confederation (OFC). It will be chaired "by a neutral chairman who should be appointed in consultation with the confederations’ presidents," added FIFA. "Blatter proposes same players will reform FIFA in seven weeks .... - not believable," said International Trade Union Confederation general secretary Sharan Burrow on Twitter. However, UEFA president Michel Platini, a member of the FIFA executive committee and one of Blatter's sternest critics, cautiously welcomed the move. “I feel (it) is an important step towards improving overall processes and transparency within the organization," he said in a statement. "We must now make sure that the reforms outlined today will be undertaken in a swift and effective manner. As I have said various times in the recent past, we need to reform FIFA and we need to do it now." (Editing by Ossian Shine and Pritha Sarkar)