FIFA are standing by their Vice-President Jack Warner, after he was referred to the FIFA Ethics Committee by the Dominican Football Association (DFA). Warner, who is also head of CONCACAF, the governing body of North, Central American and Caribbean football is accused of “appalling conduct, and flagrant abuse of power” by the DFA after declaring to the association his intent to reshape Dominica’s football hierarchy.

For Franco Carraro, 2006 was a rollercoaster. He resigned as president of the Italian Football Federation because of the match fixing scandal in Italian football last summer. Then Carraro , an IOC member and member of UEFA and FIFA. was banned from sport leadership for 4.5 years. But appeal after appeal diminished the punishment and now the IOC Ethics Commission has also given him a clean bill of health.

In this speech to the conference 'Play Fair with Sport' held at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 29 September 2006, director of Play the Game Jens Sejer Andersen suggests that the international communiy founds a “Global Coalition for Good Governance in Sport" to fight the growing problem of corruption in sport. The new body should be organised along the lines of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Ethics has also become a focal point for the International Ski Federation (FIS). The FIS Council has decided to set up an Ethics Commission and has appointed former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix as its first member.

Guy Drut, a French IOC member, seriously tarnished the reputation of the Olympic Movement when he was convicted in a corruption case in his home country, says IOC’s Ethics Commission. Nevertheless, after intervention by French president Jacques Chirac, Guy Drut can now continue his work on the Olympic Committee.

When FIFA’s Executive Committee starts work on a new Code of Ethics, it may consider stopping the practice of entrusting world cup tickets to officials from national football federations. It is a practice that appears to invite abuse, and according to media reports Ismail Bhamjee from Botswana is not the only one who has succumbed to the temptation of selling tickets on at inflated prices

Football can, it seems, revive national rivalries and conjure the ghosts of past wars. But football, can also, in a different way than long speeches or international resolutions, help induce progress toward peaceful solutions for military conflicts.

FIFA’s Congress decided this week to create a new Ethics Committee which shall act independently of FIFA’s Executive Committee. The setup of the committee and guidelines for its work will be determined later by FIFA’s Executive Committee.