PtG Article 27.01.2012

Pieth will hunt down the “gangsters” in FIFA

During the past two years, FIFA has experienced a wealth of scandals which lead football’s governing body to create an independent Governance Committee charged with reforming FIFA. But the Chairman of the Committee, Mark Pieth, claims that he would be surprised if there are no more scandals to come.

Speaking to German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Pieth was asked whether he expected to see more scandals and responded: "I cannot judge yet," and added "it would surprise me if it went off without scandal", writes insideworldfootball.com.

Pieth also said: "We must see to it that the gangsters do not escape in the wake of reform detractors." He does not believe that many of the people in the current Executive Committee of FIFA will be there much longer. "They will resign because of scandals", he said.

Pieth also responded to some of the criticism that he has received with regards to the fact that he is being paid by FIFA, saying that "Money always does create some risk, but I see no problem in our case," writes insideworldfootball.com

American professor and sports blogger Roger Pielke agree that the fact that he is being paid for his services is not necessarily problematic. “Rather, as I have argued, the non-disclosure of the significant payment from FIFA ($128,000 for drafting a paper) prior to being appointed created serious credibility problems for a committee with the phrase "good governance" in its title. They need not have started off with that deficit”, he writes on his blog.

SOURCE: insideworldfootball.com and The Least Thing

Read Roger Pielke’s story on the payment from FIFA here

Read the original article from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung here