Samoura chosen as first female FIFA secretary general – Congress seek to clean up mess

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Samoura
Samoura

MEXICO CITY, May 13, (AFP): FIFA president Gianni Infantino opened a congress on Friday to confirm reforms at world football’s scandal-tarred organization while rumours abound that a woman will be named as number two for the first time.

Infantino was presiding over a gathering in Mexico City aimed at formally implementing changes that were adopted at an extraordinary congress in February to overcome a deep corruption crisis.

“Today we pass from the words to the actions, from the proclamations to the facts,” Infantino said.

“You will see us reborn with a congress (in which) what we say, we are doing it as well, for the good of FIFA and for the good of football.”

In a potentially historic move, a source close to FIFA said Senegalese UN diplomat Fatma Samoura will likely be named as secretary general of the male-dominated organization.

Samoura, who is currently based in Nigeria for the United Nations Development Program, has worked across Africa for the UN for 21 years.

The former secretary general, Jerome Valcke of France, was sacked in January and banned from football for 12 years over misconduct in television deals and World Cup ticket sales — one of the many scandals that hit FIFA.

Germany’s Markus Kattner has been serving as interim secretary general since then.

Infantino — who was elected in February after his predecessor Sepp Blatter was brought down by the corruption scandal — wants to turn the page and put the focus back on football.

In another step towards restoring trust, the North and Central American and Caribbean football confederation (CONCACAF), which has been in the eye of the corruption storm, elected a new president on Thursday.

Canadian football chief Victor Montagliani became CONCACAF’s fourth president in five years after his three predecessors were ensnared in corruption allegations, with the last one arrested in December.

FIFA’s new council, meanwhile, decided on Tuesday to resume the process to select the host of the 2026 World Cup, which had been frozen since last year over claims of misdeeds in awarding the tournaments to Russia for 2018 and Qatar for 2022.

But the scandals keep haunting world football.

On Monday, Infantino’s former boss, Michel Platini, said he will step down as head of European football body UEFA after failing to overturn his ban from all football-related activity over allegations that he received a dubious two million Swiss franc ($2 million, 1.8 million euros) payment from FIFA.

Earlier this month, FIFA banned top executive members Sergio Jadue of Chile and Luis Bedoya of Colombia for life over bribes they accepted for football television and marketing contracts.

World football’s governing body must now ratify reforms that were approved by a special congress in February, which renamed the disgraced executive committee as the FIFA Council and pruned its powers.

The reforms came into force on April 27, 60 days after the vote, but Infantino must now make sure that the regional confederations and national associations at the heart of the corruption follow through.

“Things are getting calmer at FIFA,” said Fernando Sarney, Brazilian member of the Council.

The governance reforms include term limits, transparency in salaries and more powers for the secretary general, who would become a true counterweight to the president.

Acting secretary general Kattner will on Friday present the state of the organization’s finances, which posted a $122 million loss last year.

In other decisions, the congress faces prickly votes over the admission of Gibraltar and Kosovo that will take the world body to 211 members.

The FIFA Council recommended on Tuesday that both be admitted, which would entitle them to participate in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

The former Serbian province of Kosovo narrowly won a vote at the UEFA congress this month to get membership to the European body.

FIFA’s executive originally rejected Gibraltar’s bid, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ordered that the congress take a vote on the British territory, which is also claimed by Spain.

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