Most of the 209 national Football Associations that make up FIFA, world football’s governing body, publish little or no information on what they do and how they spend their money despite the fact that they received more than $1 million each from FIFA in 2014, according to a new report from an anti-corruption campaign group.
With the corruption crisis still engulfing Zurich-based football world governing body FIFA, Transparency International (TI) conducted research into the governance structures at FIFA’s member associations to see how much information is publicly available about how they operate.
TI looked at Football Association (FA) websites to find information on financial accounts, governing statutes, codes of conduct and annual activity reports. The report, Transparency International Football Governance League Table, showed the following:
81 per cent of FAs have no financial records publicly available
21 per cent of FAs have no websites
85 per cent of FAs publish no activity accounts of what they do
Only 14 out of FIFA’s 209 football associations – Canada, Denmark, England, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden – publish the minimum amount of information necessary to let people know what they do, how they spend their money and what values they believe in.
Cobus de Swardt, TI MD, said: “The risk of corruption at too many football associations around the world is high. This problem is made worse by the lack of information such as audited financial statements by many associations. FIFA needs to enforce better governance on its members as well as on itself. The good that football can do is tarnished when corruption is allowed to flourish. Any incoming president of FIFA must make it a priority to create more accountable governance throughout the organisations from the bottom, as well as from the top.”
