ZURICH: The oil of further confusion has been poured on the FIFA reform fire with the leak of the initial proposals from Domenico Scala, working at the behest of president Sepp Blatter writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Scala, independent chairman of the world football federation’s audit and compliance committee, had been roped in by Blatter to work on a fast-track package of reform proposals after the 79-year-old Swiss effected his election U-turn and decided to stand down again.

Right from his arrival in 2012 Scala had made no secret of his opinion that FIFA needed term and age limits, full transparency on remuneration – including the president’s pay – and far tighter accounting procedures.

He also questioned the dysfunctional nature of an executive committee comprising delegates from the six regional confederations, all suspicious of reform.

Scala has always insisted that FIFA should abandon its antiquated ‘governing committee’ in favour of a corporate-style management board system more appropriate to the size of its revenues and commercial business.

These formed the basis of the reform suggestions which Scala set before the executive committee last month, according to Reuters.

At the start of last week, however, FIFA announced that former Olympic director-general Carrard had been appointed to head up a new reform committee. Carrard will certainly insist on starting again from scratch and he has talked also of appointing his own independent advisory committee.

This adds up to three separate reform panels – even before addressing the issue of whether reform proposals should be progressed in parallel with the election of a new president next February 26.

Carrard, as an experienced lawyer, may yet have his own views on the judicial validity of such a twin-track approach. He may also have misgivings about having a February deadline imposed on such a major undertaken as FIFA reform.

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