Friday, March 18, 2016

New FIFA president Gianni Infantino will host the executive committee meeting in Zurich for the first time today after declaring the world governing body can emerge "stronger than ever" from the corruption scandal.

Last night, FIFA published for the first time full details of last year's 3.63million Swiss Franc (€3.3m) payments to former president Sepp Blatter as it looks to show transparency moving forwards.

Blatter, 80, had been in FIFA's top job since 1998 until he was forced to resign as the organisation was engulfed by ethical controversy.

The Swiss is now appealing against six-year ban imposed following breaches relating to a payment to former head of UEFA, Michel Platini.

The announcement was made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport shortly before Thursday's publication of FIFA's accounts.

As well as Blatter's salary details, the figures also revealed a breakdown of what was paid to secretary general Jerome Valcke - another official who was banned in the wake of the corruption scandal for breaching seven counts of the ethics code including involvement in a World Cup tickets scandal, television rights sales and using a private jet for personal reasons.

In a subsequent development, the office of the attorney general of Switzerland announced criminal proceedings have now been opened against Frenchman Valcke, who was formally dismissed from his FIFA role in January.

FIFA's accounts show Valcke received a gross salary of some 1.51million Swiss Francs (€1.4m) with additional extras such as social security and pension fund contributions taking the total up to 2.12m CHF (€1.9m).

The report revealed FIFA had returned a significant loss for 2015 of $122m, which was a first deficit since 2002 and a result of both the legal costs of fighting the corruption scandal as well as losing main sponsors which the organisation put down to "the extraordinary circumstances that occurred as well as the slower pace of finalising revenue-generating contracts."

Despite all of the on-going issues, Infantino, secretary general at UEFA under Platini and last month elected to succeed Blatter as FIFA president, remains convinced the organisation can move forwards into a positive future following "an incredibly tough year".

In the foreword to FIFA's Financial and Governance Report, Infantino said: "It is to the credit of the decent majority within the organisation that we acted together, in these difficult times, to limit the damage and to secure the future of FIFA.

"By taking the necessary steps to support reform at the extraordinary congress in February, I believe that we have turned a corner and that FIFA is poised to emerge stronger than ever."

However, while FIFA's reserve funds dropped to $1.34bn, there still remains plenty of money in the bank to fund projects around the world.

FIFA is, via the US authorities, actively trying to recoup millions of dollars taken in the corruption scandal, while also continuing to search for new commercial partners leading up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Infantino added: "My time in office will be focused on helping our member associations to fully implement the reforms at all levels of the game to ensure we restore full confidence in FIFA among all of our stakeholders."

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