BY TIM PARSONS
Francois Carrard, the newly appointed chair of FIFA’s 15 person reform Committee, has attacked critics of Sepp Blatter-the former FIFA president, for the level of criticism levied against him in the wake of the indictments against soccer officials in May after 25 years worth of money laundering fraud and racketing pedaled by football kingpins was uncovered by U.S investigators. Carrard was appointed to oversee FIFA’s reform in the wake of those disgraceful scandals by the football officials, most of whom have been axed by FIFA and face jail in the event of conviction by the courts.
US and Swiss prosecutors, as we all know, have been probing alleged irregularities in the awarding of the rights to hold the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
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Blatter, who tendered his resignation days after being elected to a fifth consecutive term as FIFA president, was lambasted for the world soccer body’s failure to stamp out the corruption that has heavily tarnished the reputation of the organization since the revelations that emerged this year. Many observers believe he could have done that long ago. The basis of the wide criticism relates to his longstanding leadership over sports richest organization since it is almost inconceivable that he would have known nothing about it all these years.
His successor will be elected at an extraordinary Congress on Feb. 26.
“There is something unfair about the way he is being treated,” Francois Carrard told Le Matin Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday.
“I say this in all independence. We’re burning him. Certainly he has made mistakes but he has also brought positive elements. Unfortunately it is always like that when someone stays on too long, the negative gets the upper hand.”
Carrard, a former director general of the International Olympic Committee, was appointed chairman of FIFA’s reform committee earlier this month.
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One thing Carrard never addressed is why Sepp Blatter was repeatedly voted as leader 5 consecutive times. His repeated election for the post does not reflect any level of natural justice. No political leader is voted in 3 times in a row, and whilst football is different to politics, the underpinning principles are the same. Not much has been said in the way of why he has continuously been given the post, and it smacks of corruption in itself that nobody else has ever been given a chance to be at the top of the FIFA tree. We all know that politics plays a big part in FIFA, just like in many other organizations where power is linked to position, so it is intuitive to conclude that corruption has always pervaded the football industry but only came out because of this whole shameful scandal. So, all this nonsense that criticism against him was unfair is a load of rubbish. For all we know, corruption lies at the heart of this very cry against criticism and we should all simply ignore it and view it is a contrived show of allegiance for the former President.
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