The international football Federation (FIFA) has updated the code of ethics: the updated version of the document does not contain the word “corruption”. This decision was made at a closed meeting of the management of the organization.
A new offence, defamation, was introduced in the code of ethics. This term refers to the dissemination of defamatory information. For this guilty can be disqualified for libel against FIFA, according to the Daily telegraph..
“Persons associated with the code of the organization are prohibited from making public statements of a defamatory nature against FIFA and/or any other person associated with the code in the context of FIFA events,” says section 22.2 of the new code
Those who are found guilty of FIFA, it is forbidden to engage in any activity related to football for a period of up to two years. If these persons are again found to be in repeated violation in “serious cases”, the period of suspension may be five years.
The new version of the code prohibits bribery, but the possibility of initiating judicial investigations in this regard has become less. In particular, the document establishes the Statute of limitations for prosecution. Thus, persons suspected of bribery, misappropriation of funds and manipulation of football matches will not be held liable after ten years from the date of the violation. Before that, there was no Statute of limitations for the prosecution of persons suspected of corruption.
The code of ethics was first introduced in 2004, the head of FIFA Joseph Blatter. Blatter himself left his post in 2015 by the decision of the ethics Committee, after the organization broke the biggest corruption scandal. 14 former and current football officials were charged with corruption. According to some reports, the amount of bribes amounted to approximately $ 150 million. Among the arrested were former President of the Confederation of football of North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), former Vice-President of FIFA Alfred Havit, as well as the head of the South American Confederation of football (CONMEBOL) and Vice-President of FIFA Juan angel Napout of Paraguay. A total of 42 people were involved in the case of corruption in FIFA.
Later the post of head of the organization was taken by Gianni Infantino. “The new FIFA is a democracy, it’s not a dictatorship,” Infantino told FIFA members in his 2017 address.
