Yesterday the Fifa ExCo decided that the Ethics Committee will publish, at is discretion, details of ongoing proceedings to allow for more trasparency in it's work. The ExCo also appointed Ángel María Villar Llona as acting chairman of the organising committee of the World Cup, seeing as the actual chairman, Michel Platini, is currently serving a 90 day suspension.
Today Fifa confirmed that a number of officials are either under investigation by the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee while proceedings against two officials have already been passed on the the adjucatory chamber of the Ethics Committee. One of them is Franz Beckanbauer, who was involved in the winning World Cup bid for Germany in 2006 and the other? Yes, Ángel María Villar Llona.
Under the Fifa code of ethics, "all parties are presumed innocent until a decision has been passed by the adjudicatory chamber." So this allows for two thoughts. One is that the Fifa ExCo already knows the decision of the (Independent) Ethics Committee and appointed Mr Villar Llona as he is innocent of any charges. Or, the Fifa ExCo, in true Fifa fashion, have decided to go ahead with the appointment regardless of the charges against Mr. Villar Llona.
Is this just another example of Fifa irony, a twisted sense of humour? Remember my quote yesterday from Nicholas McGeehan, the Gulf researcher at Human Rights Watch, about Sheikh Salman of Bahrain: "If a member of Bahrain’s royal family is the cleanest pair of hands that Fifa can find, then the organisation would appear to have the shallowest and least ethical pool of talent in world sport." Paraphrase that as you wish, inserting the name of Ángel María Villar Llona.
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