Zurich, Dec 3 (IANS) World football governing body FIFA has approved a raft of reforms which will see an increase in the number of women involved in decision-making and term limits for senior officials, whose salaries will be made public.
The main reforms in the proposal, which was introduced by the 2016 FIFA reform committee, include term limits for the FIFA president and council members, integrity checks on officials by an independent committee and a statute focused on protecting human rights, among other planned changes.
The FIFA president will now be permitted to remain in office for a maximum of three four-year terms. President Sepp Blatter, who is currently serving a 90-day suspension resulting from an ongoing criminal investigation, has been in office for 17 years.
The reformers also said, the members of the council will be elected by the member associations of the respective region under FIFA’s electoral regulations, with a FIFA review committee to conduct comprehensive and enhanced integrity checks.
Key financial decisions to be made by the finance, development and governance committees, which will have a minimum number of independent members and whose activities will be audited by the fully independent audit and compliance committee.
It was also reiterated that FIFA has continued to fulfill its mission of supporting and promoting the game of football around the world.
In the last six months alone, FIFA has successfully staged four major competitions, including the FIFA Women’s World Cup, as well as held the Preliminary Draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, completed preparations for the FIFA Club World Cup, which kicks off on in Japan on December 10, and run more than 660 technical training courses and programmes on development since the end of May 2015.
The kick-off times for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017, both to be played in Russia, have also been confirmed.