FA chief’s new snub to Blatter
FA DIRECTOR Heather Rabbatts has followed fellow board member David Gill in making a stand against entrenched FIFA corruption under sepp Blatter’s presidency.
Rabbatts, one of the FA’s two independent directors, has helped keep the heat on Blatter, despite him winning a fifth term, by resigning from FIFA’s anti-discrimination task force.
Her decision follows Gill quitting FIFA’s executive committee two hours after being inducted because he will not sit on any body chaired by Blatter. Belgium’s executive committee member Michel D’Hooghe gave every indication yesterday that he will follow suit.
Rabbatts said it was ‘unacceptable’ so little had been done to reform FIFA and the latest fraud scandal was ‘disastrous’ for FIFA’s reputation.
Pointedly, she informed FIFA of her resignation in a letter to secretary-general Jerome Valcke, saying: ‘It would have been my intention to write to the chairman but as I understand he is currently not available, I am sending this to you.’
The task force chairman is FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb, who is in custody in switzerland, along with the six others arrested at the Baur au Lac hotel last Wednesday. Webb is awaiting extradition for questioning in the UsA, where he has been indicted on an extraordinary 17 counts of corruption.
Rabbatts added: ‘ This has not been an easy decision as I believe the challenges facing FIFA on the issues of racism and discrimination are significant. However, my willingness to play a part in the policies in this area is outweighed by the disastrous effect on FIFA’s reputation of recent events.
‘I find it unacceptable that so little has been done to reform FIFA and it is clear from the re-election of Blatter that the ongoing damage to the reputation of football’s world governing body is bound to continue to overshadow and undermine the credibility of any work in the anti-discrimination arena and beyond.’ D’Hooghe, chairman of FIFA’s medical committee, is likely to quit FIFA’s executive when the 54 UEFA countries meet in Berlin to decide their next move ahead of saturday’s Champions League final.
All options, including a World Cup boycott, are still on the table. D’Hooghe said: ‘I thought the tornado that struck FIFA would change some people’s minds. That happened to a minor extent, but clearly insufficient to create a new majority. I have been shouldering the medical responsibility at FIFA for 27 years but cannot reconcile myself with the institution now I understand there are a lot of corruption cases.
‘I no longer want to participate in this situation. It’s time changes were made. If this atmosphere persists at FIFA, I don’t have a place in it.’
Culture secretary John Whittingdale says the British Government will do all it can to effect change at the top of FIFA. He told MPs: ‘I have just spoken to FA chairman Greg Dyke and assured him that we stand behind the English FA’s efforts to end the culture of kickbacks and corruption that risk ruining international football for a generation. No options should be ruled out.’
Meanwhile, FIFA have provisionally banned Enrique sanz, Webb’s No 2 at CONCACAF, from all football- related activity.