FIFA will cooperate with the Council of Europe on issues like human rights and good governance. We asked the secretary general, Thorbjørn Jagland, what the purpose of this partnership is about.
By Pål Ødegård
Two days ago, on the 10th of January, FIFA announced they have reached an agreement to establish a memorandum of understanding with the Council of Europe. In the statement FIFA president Gianni Infantino shakes hands with the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland. The purpose of the partnership, the statement says, is to collaborate on a range of issues such as human rights, match fixing, good governance, doping and hooliganism. The announcement raised some eyebrows as Mrs Anne Brasseur, representative at the Council of Europe from Luxembourg, and former president of its parliamentarian assembly (PACE), is planning to present a report to this assembly later this month on governance issues in FIFA. As The Guardian reported (https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/dec/08/fifa-ethics-investigator-gianni-infantino-council-of-europe-report) late last year, she was especially critical of how the FIFA leadership have tried to influence the former chairman of FIFA’s governance committee, Miguel Maduro, not to block Russia’s deputy minister Vitaly Mutko from being eligible to get reelected onto the FIFA council. Maduro was removed from his position at the FIFA congress in Bahrain in May last year after just eight months in the position. Furthermore, the chairman for the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee, Mr Cornel Borbély, was investigating the FIFA president for violating FIFA’...
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