FIFA's problem is cultural, claims watchdog

FIFA needs to change the culture within the organization and not just introduce new committees if it is to successfully battle corruption in its ranks, a leading anti-corruption watchdog said on Thursday.

Transparency International said that FIFA's working practices, at least until the last year, had been exposed by the release of a legal document issued by the prosecutor's office in the Swiss canton of Zug on Wednesday.

This showed ex-FIFA president Joao Havelange and former executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira took multi-million dollar bribes on World Cup deals and FIFA officials knew about it but did nothing.

"It shows once again that it is not about working on structure and having better rules, it's about the culture and spirit and FIFA has not yet begun to work on that," Transparency's senior adviser on sport, Sylvia Schenk said.

"It showed the culture and spirit that was prevalent within FIFA until only last year, when there was a small change. It was accepted that officials had taken money and received money in a way which was contradictory to their own obligations toward FIFA."

Reuters

(China Daily 07/14/2012 page15)