LAUSANNE: Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, has urged FIFA to expand the reform process for the sake of its own credibility and future writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Bach has spoken up ever more loudly over the past six months for a root-and-branch reconstruction of the world football federation as it lurched from one corruption-battered scandal to another.

In a statement of reaction to the suspensions of FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA’s Michel Platini, Bach suggested that the world football federation should look to an outsider to “bring back stability and credibility.”

He said: “Enough is enough. We hope that now, finally, everyone at FIFA has understood at last that they continue to remain passive. They must act swiftly to regain credibility because you cannot forever dissociate the credibility of FIFA from the credibility of football.

“FIFA must realise that this is now about more than just a list of candidates. This is also a structural problem and will not be solvbed simply by the election of a new president.

“They must do two things immediately: they must accelerate and deepen the reform process in order to comply with accountability, transparency and all the princip[les of good governance, as expressed in our [IOC] reform programme, Olympic Agenda 2020.

“They should also be open for a credible external candidate of high integrity to accomplish the necessary reforms and bring back stability and credibility to FIFA.”

A reform committee is currently at work, under the chairmanship of former IOC director-general Francois Carrard. It had been scheduled for reform proposals to be presented to the congress next February 26 at which the new president is due to be elected.

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