New York: A New York University law professor who resigned from a FIFA governance committee (FGC) has filed an ethics complaint against the global football body’s leadership, the ‘New York Times’ reported here Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, the complaint lodged by Joseph Weiler claims that FIFA president Gianni Infantino, his top deputy and other senior officials intervened in their committee’s work in a bid to block scrutiny of senior football officials.
Contacted by this news agency, FIFA declined to comment on the report, which came on the same day that Miguel Maduro, the former chairman of FIFA’s governance committee, gave a devastating indictment before a British parliamentary committee of Infantino’s commitment to reform.
Maduro said the FIFA leadership interfered with his committee’s work, ignored rules and ultimately sacked him in order to maintain power. He said that only ‘external pressure’ would force the corruption-tainted organisation to change.
Weiler and three other members of Maduro’s committee resigned in May after Infantino fired Maduro, less than a year after he was appointed.
Weiler confirmed his own complaint in a telephone interview with the ‘New York Times’. “It was filed in the last few days,” Weiler said and added that it covered many of the same claims Maduro made to the British parliamentary panel.
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