VIENNA (AP) — FIFA would help fund a global agency to tackle corruption in sport, its president Gianni Infantino said on Monday.
Creating a body like the World Anti-Doping Agency to address financial corruption, match-fixing and the influence of organized crime in sport has been talked about for more than a decade without a detailed proposal.
“We at FIFA are ready to invest in it,” Infantino said, suggesting “maybe the creation of such an agency would help make sport safe in the decades to come.”
As Infantino spoke at a United Nations event in Austria, the , of three men, including Qatari soccer and television executive Nasser al-Khelaifi and former FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke.
Their case arose from years-long American and Swiss investigations of suspected corruption in soccer that removed a generation of international leaders from office and helped lift Infantino to the FIFA presidency in 2016.
His funding pledge was made when signing a cooperation agreement between FIFA and the Vienna-based ,, which connects international officials and programs.
Speakers at the event included diplomats from Russia and Qatar, winners of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting votes in 2010 that FIFA later asked Swiss federal prosecutors to investigate.
No convictions have been secured in Switzerland, though criminal proceedings are also open against Infantino’s predecessor , for alleged mismanagement of FIFA funds not directly linked to World Cup bidding. They were questioned in the past two weeks.
“Never again. Never again corruption in football,” said Infantino, who is , in Switzerland over meetings he had with then-attorney general Michael Lauber.
two weeks ago after being disciplined for failing to declare a June 2017 meeting with Infantino where he took no notes, and misleading a subsequent internal investigation.
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