MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on recent revelations of high-level corruption cases in FIFA
8.6.2015 - (2015/2730(RSP))
pursuant to Rule 123(2) of the Rules of Procedure
Curzio Maltese, Pablo Iglesias, Marisa Matias, Eleonora Forenza, Lynn Boylan, Patrick Le Hyaric, Fabio De Masi, Kostadinka Kuneva, Lola Sánchez Caldentey, Sofia Sakorafa on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group
See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B8-0548/2015
B8‑0573/2015
European Parliament resolution on recent revelations of high-level corruption cases in FIFA
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission communication of 18 January 2011 entitled ‘Developing the European Dimension in Sport’ (COM(2011)0012),
– having regard to its resolution of 2 February 2012 on the European dimension in sport[1],
– having regard to the Commission White Paper on Sport of 11 July 2007 (COM(2007)0391),
– having regard to the Commission communication of 6 June 2011 entitled ‘Fighting Corruption in the EU’ (COM(2011)0308),
– having regard to its resolution of 14 March 2013 on match-fixing and corruption in sport[2],
– having regard to its resolution of 23 October 2013 on organised crime, corruption and money laundering: recommendations on action and initiatives to be taken[3],
– having regard to the Commission’s EU Anti-Corruption Report of 3 February 2014 (COM(2014)0038),
– having regard to Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA of 22 July 2003 on combating corruption in the private sector[4],
– having regard to the Resolution of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, of 21 May 2014 on the European Union Work Plan for Sport (2014-2017)[5],
– having regard to the ‘Stockholm Programme – An open and secure Europe serving and protecting citizens’,
– having regard to the agreement on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive) (COM(2013)0045),
– having regard to the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of 23 April 2015 on the reform of football governance,
– having regard to the United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families of 1990,
– having regard to two of the core International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 (C029), and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention of 1957 (C105),
– having regard to Qatar’s ratification of the Forced Labour Convention (C029) in 1998,
– having regard to Article 2 of the FIFA Statutes, which establishes that the objectives of FIFA include the following: ‘to promote integrity, ethics and fair play with a view to preventing all methods or practices, such as corruption, doping or match manipulation, which might jeopardise the integrity of matches, competitions, Players, Officials and Members or give rise to abuse of Association Football’,
– having regard to Rule 123(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas 14 FIFA officials, including its Vice-President, were arrested on 27 May 2015 by Swiss authorities in Zurich; whereas the arrests were made at the request of the US Department of Justice on the basis of charges of money laundering, racketeering, bribery and fraud;
B. whereas the 14 FIFA officials arrested are under investigation by the US FBI . for corruption involving bribes worth more than USD 150 million;
C. whereas it is a proven fact that FIFA has operated for many years as an unaccountable, opaque and notoriously corrupt organisation; whereas the recent arrests confirm that the fraud and corruption in FIFA are systemic, widespread and persistent rather than involving isolated cases of misbehaviour, as claimed by former FIFA President Joseph Blatter;
D. whereas a separate criminal investigation into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar, respectively, has also been initiated by the Swiss and US authorities;
E. whereas FIFA’s re-election of Joseph Blatter as president and its decision not to publish the findings of an internal inquiry into the selection of Russia and Qatar as hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, respectively, show that it has been acting in an irresponsible and unaccountable way and has remained unwilling to reform or to make the changes needed to improve the governance of international football;
F. whereas the resignation of Joseph Blatter and the arrest of FIFA officials (although they could have taken place long ago) have created the conditions for radical reform of FIFA’s structures and practices with a view to improving its governance and fighting corruption in the organisation;
G. whereas the integrity of sports organisations is of great importance, since both professional and amateur sport play a key role in the global promotion of peace, respect for human rights and solidarity, bring health and economic benefits for societies and have an essential role in highlighting fundamental educational and cultural values and promoting social inclusion;
H. whereas major sporting events provide extraordinary opportunities to spread the values and principles linked to sport;
I. whereas sport represents a large and fast-growing sector of the EU economy and makes an important contribution to growth and jobs, with value-added and employment effects exceeding average growth rates;
J. whereas football is a sport with high social visibility that needs to have the highest standards of governance; whereas the governance of international football is in urgent need of reform;
K. whereas as the situation in FIFA is the outcome of a top-down responsibility process, matters would not have reached their current state had the continental and national football associations made every possible bottom-up effort to prevent and block these things happening;
L. whereas corruption is a particularly serious area of crime with a cross-border dimension, and often has implications across and beyond EU borders; whereas the European Union has an obligation to act in the field of anti-corruption policy;
M. whereas Article 67 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) stipulates the Union’s obligation to ensure a high level of security, including through the prevention and combating of crime and the approximation of criminal laws; whereas Article 83 TFEU lists corruption as a particularly serious area of crime with a cross-border dimension;
N. whereas, if not addressed urgently and properly, corruption may continue to undermine trust in sports institutions and threaten the integrity of sport as a whole;
O. whereas the Commission and the Council have recognised the need for a partnership between football’s governing bodies and public authorities for the good governance of the game, which respects the self-regulatory nature of professional sport and which has led to the structured dialogue on sport;
P. whereas transparency, accountability and democracy – in other words, good governance – in sports organisations are prerequisites for such a self-regulatory regime, and for the sports movement to prevent and fight fraud and corruption in sport effectively and at a structural level;
Q. whereas the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, in his statement of 3 June 2015, condemned the latest developments within FIFA and called for the restoration of trust and the establishment of a solid system of good governance at FIFA;
R. whereas Parliament has called on football’s governing bodies to establish greater democracy, transparency, legitimacy and accountability (i.e. financial auditing by an independent auditing authority) and good governance, and has asked the Commission to provide guidance as to how legitimate and adequate self-regulation can be supported;
S. whereas the fight against corruption is one of the priorities of the Stockholm programme, which guides the Commission’s actions in the field of justice and home affairs;
T. whereas the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) reported last month that, on the basis of mortality figures supplied by the Nepalese and Indian Embassies in Qatar, at least 1 993 migrant workers died in that country between 2011 and May 2015; whereas it is estimated that if this trend continues, more than 4 000 migrant workers will have died before the FIFA World Cup begins in 2022;
U. whereas the three leading causes of migrant construction worker deaths are: (a) heart failure as a result of being forced to work on World Cup infrastructure in temperatures that can reach over 50 degrees Celsius in the months from June to September; (b) workplace accidents; and (c) disease due to squalid living conditions in labour camps, and all are directly related to working conditions;
V. whereas under the kafala system employers have almost total control over migrant workers’ movements; whereas the illegal practice of confiscating passports is described by ITUC as ‘near universal’; whereas the threat of deportation by the sponsoring employer is used to abuse migrant workers’ rights;
W. whereas Article 2(1) of the Forced Labour Convention defines forced labour as requiring three elements to be present: the exaction of work; the absence of consent; and a penalty;
X. whereas the ILO, investigating a representation brought against Qatar under Article 24 of the ILO Constitution by ITUC and the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), concluded in the March 2014 report of its Director-General that, in certain cases, the three required elements of forced labour were present in the situation of migrant workers employed to build infrastructure for the 2022 FIFA World Cup;
1. Endorses the indictment that alleges corruption within FIFA that is rampant, systemic and deep-rooted;
2. Welcomes Joseph Blatter’s resignation as FIFA’s president, and the criminal investigations currently being conducted – although both should have come earlier –, which should trigger reforms to ensure full transparency and accountability in FIFA at all levels;
3. Calls on the Commission, in coordination with the Member States and in cooperation with Interpol, Europol and Eurojust, to take all appropriate measures to tackle any possible indication of corruption on the part of FIFA or continental and national football association officials on EU territory and to fully cooperate with the US and Swiss investigating authorities;
4. Underlines the utmost importance of the investigation by the Swiss and US legal authorities of the decisions of FIFA’s Executive Committee to award the World Cup for 1998, 2010, 2018 and 2022 to France, South Africa, Russia and Qatar respectively; in this context, calls on FIFA to publish the ‘Report on the Inquiry into the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup Bidding Process’ (Garcia report) in full;
5. Is convinced that in-depth reforms within the structure of FIFA are a matter of urgency;
6. Urges FIFA to implement those reforms in order to ensure transparency and accountability and guarantee open, balanced and democratic decision-making processes within the association;
7. Believes that this will require a broad reform process, including a review of FIFA’s statutes, structure, codes and operational policies and practices;
8. Believes that the introduction of term limits and independent due diligence for members of the Executive Committee, including the president, together with transparency in respect of decision-making processes and the remuneration of executive and senior management, is essential to restoring credibility and trust;
9. Stresses the need for FIFA to conduct an external and fully independent financial audit assessing the reliability of its financial statements;
10. Urges FIFA to implement strict ethical standards and a code of conduct for its management and Executive Committee, to be supervised by an independent monitoring body;
11. Calls on all contracted sponsors and broadcasters to demand and support a reform process within FIFA by making public pronouncements against corruption in sport, and to follow up their words with continued pressure;
12. Stresses that, in view of the transnational nature of corruption in sport, the fight against it requires more effective cooperation between all stakeholders, including public authorities, law enforcement agencies, the sport industry, athletes and supporters, which should play a key role in the whole football governance system, while emphasis should also be given to education and prevention actions in this regard;
13. Recalls that good governance in sport is a precondition for the autonomy and self-regulation of sports organisations, in accordance with the principles of transparency, accountability and democracy, and stresses the need for a zero-tolerance policy on corruption in sport; underlines the need for appropriate representation of all stakeholders, including supporters, in the decision-making process; notes that best practices of other sports organisations can be adopted;
14. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up and prioritise the work and actions relating to good governance within the EU Work Plan for Sport, and to make sure that national associations are fully involved in action aimed at better governance at European and international level;
15. Calls on the Member States to enhance European law enforcement cooperation through joint investigation teams and cooperation between prosecution authorities; stresses the need for the introduction and effective enforcement of measures to combat illegal activities in sport and to guarantee the effective integrity of their governing organisations;
16. Calls on the Commission to assess whether the recent agreement on EU legislation on money laundering is sufficient to tackle money laundering by EU-registered sports governing bodies and their officials, and whether any adjustment is needed in order to allow sufficient scrutiny of their bank accounts;
17. Insists that the fight against corruption with regard to the governance of FIFA also be accompanied by clear commitments and measures on the part of FIFA against other forms of corruption, in particular match-fixing;
18. Stresses the need for future reforms within professional football to include substantial provisions for the protection of the rights of athletes, trainers and teams; in this regard, underlines the importance of addressing third-party ownership of players in European sport and the exploitation of minors in early binding contracts;
19. Recalls the importance of having clear and transparent rules for the awarding of World Cups, and of ensuring the establishment of adequate information and supervision machinery, in order to make sure that this procedure guarantees equality between bidding countries and a final decision based strictly on the merit of their projects;
20. Highlights the importance of ensuring that the follow-up investigation into past corruption practices within FIFA includes, wherever justified, the removal of all officials involved in financial misconduct, and a review of the decisions to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively; calls for the EU to monitor this process closely and to enable the necessary conditions for an unbiased external investigation;
21. Condemns the tragic and unnecessary deaths of migrant workers in Qatar since the announcement of the 2022 World Cup host, and expresses its condolences to the families of those workers who have died;
22. Calls on FIFA, in light of the deaths of more than 1 993 migrant workers on World Cup infrastructure, and the revelations of corruption and bribery in the awarding of tournaments, to re-run the vote for the host of the 2022 World Cup;
23. Expresses its concern at the situation of migrant workers in Qatar, including dangerous working conditions, being forced to work in extreme heat six days a week, long working hours, and being forced to live in overcrowded and squalid labour camps;
24. Calls on Qatar to ratify, legislate for, and enforce the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families; calls on the Qatari Government to immediately and effectively enforce the ILO Forced Labour Convention of 1930; calls on Qatar to ratify, legislate for, and enforce further ILO Conventions that guarantee the rights to freedom of association, to form and join unions, to organise and to engage in collective bargaining, and to prevent abuse of migrant workers and domestic workers;
25. Calls on the Qatari Government to immediately abolish the kafala sponsorship system whereby migrant workers are bound to their employers; calls for the abolition of recruitment fees and for an end to the system whereby migrant workers need their sponsor’s permission to change jobs and/or exit the country;
26. Supports the campaign by ITUC and NGOs to call on FIFA’s corporate sponsors to withdraw sponsorship from the organisation until either the World Cup 2022 is relocated, or workers’ rights in Qatar are ensured;
27. Calls on all international sports organisation, and in particular on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), to ensure that any country bidding to host a major sporting event undertakes, in relation to all activities linked with the organisation and conduct of the event, to abide by international standards in respect of fundamental human rights and labour rights, ensuring decent working standards in line with UN and ILO Conventions in all the activities concerned;
28. Asks international sports organisations to introduce procedures to verify integrity and mechanisms to prevent, detect and punish all acts of corruption and financial misappropriation;
29. Emphasises that the corruption allegations against FIFA and the latter’s lack of credibility will have a devastating impact on the entire football pyramid, from the top echelons of professional football to amateur grassroots clubs;
30. Considers it regrettable that the deplorable state of affairs within FIFA is deeply negative for the reputation of football as a whole;
31. Strongly emphasises that football, as a sport, is irrelevant to the culture of corruption and must be protected, by every means, from being stigmatised because of the current developments within FIFA; reiterates that football and sport in general have a profound positive impact on the daily lives of millions of citizens, in particular young people;
32. Asks UEFA and the national football associations to step up their efforts to implement fundamental reform measures within FIFA, and in particular the recommendations set out in this resolution, both directly and through the agency of their representatives in the FIFA Executive Committee, by the end of 2016;
33. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the national football associations, the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), the European Club Association (ECA) and the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPro).
- [1] OJ C 239 E, 20.8.2013, p. 46.
- [2] Texts adopted, P7_TA(2013)0098.
- [3] Texts adopted, P7_TA(2013)0444.
- [4] OJ L 192, 31.7.2003, p. 54.
- [5] OJ C 183, 14.6.2014, p. 12.