FIFA's executive committee on Tuesday took the latest concrete step toward a set of sweeping reforms that would see the imposition of a 12-year term limit on the FIFA president and an age limit of 74 for members of its top body. The changes, which must be voted on by all 209 FIFA member associations in February, would also see the publication of top executives' compensation and the transfer of many day-to-day responsibilities to a new management board."FIFA's leaders must recognize and accept that the errors of the past were real, and they were unacceptable," reform committee Chairman François Carrard wrote in his proposal.
The measures were presented at an emergency meeting of the executive committee in Zurich, following the suspension of the three most powerful soccer officials in the world over the past month. But most of these proposed reforms have been discussed among FIFA officials for months. Tuesday's unveiling to the executive committee was a largely procedural step before it decides on a final list in December for consideration by the congress in February. The age limit of 74 would not rule out any current executive committee member by the next FIFA congress in February, nor would it affect any of the likely presidential candidates.
The day's other major, if technical, decision was an amendment to the FIFA statutes that would allow the ethics committee to more freely discuss ongoing proceedings. Now it will be able to disclose the names of officials it is investigating, including those named in the report into bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights prepared by former federal prosecutor Michael J. Garcia. The ethics committee said in a statement that it would begin discussing open cases on Wednesday afternoon.
"I think there were a number of positive steps taken today," U.S. soccer president and FIFA executive committee member Sunil Gulati said. "They may be small steps, but the tone of the meeting, both on procedural matters and larger reform was very positive."
Even with the unusual atmosphere around FIFA headquarters in the absence of suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter, his secretary-general Jérôme Valcke and FIFA Vice President Michel Platini, the subdued announcements, released on Twitter, made for a rare FIFA meeting without fireworks.
Since 14 FIFA officials and other soccer executives were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on May 27, FIFA gatherings have reliably been the setting for drama-from the May 29 FIFA congress, when it re-elected the president, to last month's executive committee, held on the same day that the Swiss attorney disclosed a criminal investigation into Mr. Blatter.
This time, FIFA didn't even hold the customary postmeeting news conference, despite pledges to improve transparency.
One reason is that the cast of characters meeting in the basement war room at FIFA headquarters keeps changing. The biggest absence this week, of course, was Mr. Blatter, who was suspended for 90 days by the FIFA ethics committee, pending an investigation by the Swiss attorney general's office. He was replaced by acting President Issa Hayatou, who returned to Zurich last week. At his side was acting Secretary-General Markus Kattner, who stepped in when Mr. Valcke was placed on leave by FIFA in September for his alleged role in a ticket-selling scheme.
The other notable absentee was Mr. Platini, the former front-runner in the FIFA presidential race, who skipped the meeting because of a 90-day suspension following the Swiss attorney general's claim that he accepted a "disloyal payment" of 2 million Swiss Francs from FIFA in 2011.
He has said that the payment was for advisory work that he performed for Mr. Blatter on a "gentleman's agreement" between 1999 and 2002 and has denied wrongdoing. Mr. Platini has already submitted the documents for his candidacy and is appealing to the ethics committee's ban, with a decision expected on Thursday. Should it be rejected, Mr. Platini has said that he will take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Since the election isn't moving from Feb. 26, despite speculation before the meeting that it might be delayed, the coming week at FIFA has at least retained some of its political intrigue. The deadline for would-be candidates to submit their paperwork is Oct. 26.
Anyone serving a suspension on that date, FIFA's chief auditor Domenico Scala said, would not be immediately considered. Should a ban be lifted at a later date, they would be allowed to re-enter the race provided they had submitted the necessary paperwork by Monday, leaving the door open for a possible return by Mr. Platini.