Corruption Risk High in all levels of Football

Transparency International, the global anti-corruption movement, today released a report looking at the publicly available information of all 209 Football Associations (FAs) on their finances, their activities, their governance structures, and their ethics. The results show significant failures in transparency and accountability of FAs, heightening their corruption risks.

Between 2011 and 2014 FIFA distributed a minimum of US$2.05 million to each of its 209 member FAs. During that same period FIFA also gave US$102 million to the six regional football Confederations.

The study shows there is no clear way to track what the FAs do with their money

• 81% of FAs have no financial records publicly available

• 21% have no websites

• 85% publish no activity accounts of what they do

It is clear that FIFA needs reforms from the bottom up as well as top down to tackle the current corruption crisis.

New Zealand Football (NZF) scored well. It is one of only 14 football associations with top marks in all four categories. The report found that these 14 football associations publish the minimum amount of information necessary to let people know what they do, how they spend their money and what values they believe in.

"We congratulate NZF for being in the top 14. We hope NSF would sustain further scrutiny to take a leadership position in encouraging football associations throughout the world to establish accountability and controls to insure that football is clean at all levels," says Transparency International New Zealand Director, Josephine Serrallach.

According to the report "Even FAs with a top score still need to reveal much more to the public about their organisation and how they spend the cash that pours in from FIFA headquarters and their own revenue generating activities."

Only when Football Associations implement anti-corruption practices and achieve high standards of transparency can Football win back trust among fans.

"Win back your fans trust!" Serrallach insists.

ENDS

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