By REBECCA R. RUIZ
May 23, 2016
FIFA, the governing body of global soccer, announced on Monday that the man who controlled its finances for the last eight months had been fired for violating his fiduciary duty to the organization.
The dismissal of that official, Markus Kattner, came almost exactly a year after American authorities announced a far-reaching corruption case[1] focused on world soccer that has continually upended the sport's leadership.
Mr. Kattner stepped in as FIFA's secretary general last fall, after American and Swiss authorities announced continuing criminal investigations into world soccer. In a statement on Monday, FIFA noted its cooperation with the investigating authorities and provided no further detail on the suspected wrongdoing by Mr. Kattner.
Mr. Kattner joined FIFA in 2003 as director of finance and later worked as deputy to Jérôme Valcke, the organization's former secretary general. After Mr. Valcke — whom Swiss authorities are scrutinizing[2] for "various acts of criminal mismanagement" — was placed on leave in September, Mr. Kattner succeeded him in that job, overseeing the organization's contracts and money.
When FIFA's longtime president, Sepp Blatter, was suspended[3] weeks later, Mr. Kattner became a principal face of the organization. In FIFA's annual financial report published in March, he was listed first among FIFA's "key management personnel."
In February, FIFA elected a new president[4], the Swiss administrator Gianni Infantino, to succeed Mr. Blatter, who is also under criminal investigation. It additionally passed a set of reforms[5] aimed at decentralizing decision-making power and tightening financial controls.
On Monday, however, the organization indicated it was still working to purge its top ranks of people tied to possible criminal wrongdoing.
An internal investigation at FIFA, carried out by the American law firm Quinn Emanuel in the wake of the Justice Department's announcement last spring, is continuing. So, too, is the scrutiny of federal authorities at the United States attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York, who have announced charges against 42 defendants, 17 of whom have publicly pleaded guilty.
A nonprofit association, FIFA has meanwhile sought to advance the government's characterization of the organization as a victim[6] of its leaders' wrongdoing. In March, with Mr. Kattner acting as its top financial official, FIFA asked authorities[7] for a share of the hundreds of millions of dollars it has been promised by convicted defendants.
Mr. Kattner's dismissal on Monday was not the first bit of upheaval for FIFA since Mr. Infantino became president three months ago. After FIFA's annual congress this month, Domenico Scala, the head of the organization's audit and compliance committee, resigned suddenly after rules were changed to give FIFA's governing council the ability to control the membership of FIFA's independent oversight bodies, including its ethics committee.
"Those bodies are factually deprived of their independence," Mr. Scala said in a statement this month. "It undermines a central pillar of the good governance of FIFA, and it destroys a substantial achievement of the reforms."
FIFA called Mr. Scala's objections "unfounded claims which are baseless."
That same week, the organization appointed a new secretary general[8] — Fatma Samoura of Senegal, a veteran United Nations diplomat — to formally assume the role Mr. Kattner had been occupying, as FIFA's newly rebranded chief executive.
"She will bring a fresh wind to FIFA," Mr. Infantino said at FIFA's congress in Mexico City. "Not somebody from inside. Not somebody from the past."
References
- ^ far-reaching corruption case (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ scrutinizing (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ suspen ded (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ elected a new president (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ passed a set of reforms (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ victim (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ asked authorities (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ appointed a new secretary general (www.nytimes.com)
Source ↔ Music MP3 Free