FIFA president intolerant on corruption, theft

PRESIDENT of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, is making it clear, that while under his tenure at the helm of the world’s most popular sport (football) the international body has significantly increased funding for their member association, there’s zero tolerance for corruption and misuse of funds.

To put things simply, Infantino is stating ‘don’t be caught with your hands in the cookie jar’!
“We were investing. FIFA was investing or distributing to its associations in the CONCACAF region, US$19M every year until 2015. As of my election last year we increased the amount from US$19M to US$60M; more than triple that investment,” said Infantino while addressing members of the media at the Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown.
The Italian further added that “we (FIFA) don’t call it distribution we call it investment to complete projects and this is the difference, from now compared to the past we as a team are much more present. We are there, we are working together, not to police, but to cooperate and we sign a contract with each association.”

Touting his ‘New FIFA’ initiative, Infantino bragged about drastic increase in funding, where every member association now has access to US$1.2M annually as compared $250 000 previously.
“This is also new in FIFA and each association has to outline in detail what they are going to do with the money that they are going to receive, and we are going to monitor this, because I am fully aware of the risks involved and, unfortunately, human beings are as they are,” said Infantino.

He added, “We are investing much more, but don’t cheat, because there will be zero tolerance. If we catch somebody who says he is building a football pitch and he is building a swimming pool, then he is out and he has to repay each single cent. We trust, we invest, we monitor, we check, we control, much more efficiently than in the past and if somebody thinks he is more-clever, then he will have to abide by the consequences.”
Infantino became the third FIFA president to touch down in Guyana, following João Havelange’s stop in 1976 and Sepp Blatter in 2001.

Apart from the turning of the sod for the countries first FIFA Forward Project (formerly known as the FIFA Goal Project), Infantino met with President David Granger and Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassador Irwin LaRocque.
“What is important to mark in the president’s statement is consistency in the developmental thrust in FIFA and what we been trying to do in Guyana,” said Forde, the GFF president.
“Clearly we (GFF) have demonstrated as an executive committee over the past 17 months that our focus is on football. We have a robust and new development programme which will get better in time,” said Forde.

Forde also pointed out that “the word of caution that I share with the wider society and from my colleagues within the fraternity and with FIFA and CONCACAF, is that many of the results we are going to witness in the coming years we will not see them overnight. This is a long, arduous, painstaking process in developing football and developing excellent footballers.
“But one of the things that we have on our side is a parent body that sees the value in the work we are doing, a president that has taken bold initiatives in setting out the forward funding programme that has more than tripled.”