FIFA: a special case
FIFA is both a non-governmental, non-profit organisation and a global company with huge revenues,
unprecedented reach, political clout and enormous worldwide social influence. But unlike a
multinational company, answerable to shareholders, FIFA’s mandate comes from the member
federations represented by officials (i.e. presidents and delegates, mostly working on a voluntary
basis) from all over the world, elected bottom up. This means that FIFA is answerable to the 208
national football associations who themselves are partly dependent on the funds that FIFA allocates to
them. This lack of mandatory accountability to the outside world makes it unlikely that change will
come either from within the organisation or from the grassroots of the football organisations.
Moreover, the scale and specific structure of FIFA makes it difficult to adapt what is considered best
business practice to the governance challenges it is facing.
Reform, therefore, will have to be innovative: FIFA must adapt what is already proven to work but also
introduce new ways of managing its affairs. If done well, this could provide a model not only for the
governance of world football but also for other sports that face comparable challenges.
The pressure to reform is coming from everyone who has a stake in the game: the supporters and the
teams, the communities of clubs and players, and the sponsors. To these must be added the media,
which in many cases has developed an almost symbiotic association with the world of football, as well
as governments and international organisations – and finally, due to the massive popularity of the
sport, the general public.
Reform must be a collaborative effort that includes FIFA’s officials and top management and has the
explicit support of the continental and national federations, clubs, sponsors, governments and civil
society.
Transparency International, therefore, calls for the creation of a multi-stakeholder group drawn from
FIFA’s stakeholders. Such a multi-stakeholder group would assist the process of re-establishing the
credibility of FIFA and world football and would work with FIFA to develop strong anti-bribery and anti-
corruption measures. Transparency International would be pleased to assist in establishing and
facilitating such a multi-stakeholder group.
This challenge can only be undertaken if FIFA’s leadership is clearly committed to reform, and to
leading top-down reform: a reform in the overall governance structures that involves an acceptance of
accountability and transparency, backed up by a clear plan to institutionalise detailed procedures for
dealing with bribery and corruption. The different steps of such a plan are outlined below.
Yellow card surely. You are not Mike Dean. 
