FIFA postpones vote on age limit and term of office

“Regarding FIFA’s governance reform process, the FIFA Executive Committee endorsed all reform proposals which have been integrated in the amendments to the FIFA Statutes and will be submitted to the vote of the Congress.

As no consensus has been reached among the member associations and their confederations on the agenda items “term of office” and “age limit”, a more thorough analysis is required,” says a statement on the FIFA website.

According to Tweets, Blatter stated in a speech at the AFC congress in Mauritius today that age limit and term limits are “not the important point, one small point in the congress on reform.” 

A passing of a limitation on these two items is described as “the only important progress to be expected from the congress” in a comment by Play the Game’s international director Jens Sejer Andersen.

Andersen finds the reforming points left out from the congress agenda more vital to eradicating corruption than the ones left on.

The recommendations from the Independent Governance Committee included an independent integrity check of all FIFA officials, independent observers, and transparency in the area of compensations and benefit  - all of which have been left out of the proposal to be voted on on Friday.

The two latest reform recommendations not to be dealt with at this year’s congress “will be examined further and the Congress will be asked to put them back on the agenda of the 2014 FIFA Congress with concrete proposals,” it says in the FIFA statement.

SOURCE: FIFA press release