Herbert Hainer, the Adidas Group's chief executive, suggested to Wirtschaftswoche earlier this month that Fifa ought to set limits to the age and terms of the Fifa president. He added that the global football organization's president should be more like a chief executive, operating under a supervisory board.
It was the first time the Adidas Group publicly made concrete proposals for reform since far-reaching governance issues broke out at Fifa. The federation has been in turmoil since May, with the U.S. indictments of 14 sports marketing executives and football officials for alleged corruption. In a conference call a few weeks ago Hainer insisted that Adidas, a long-time and prominent Fifa partner, had not been tarnished by the association.
The Adidas Group previously urged Fifa to implement unspecified reforms and, unlike four other sponsors, it refrained from calling for the immediate resignation of Sepp Blatter. Hainer told Wirtschaftswoche that the removal of a single person would not suffice, advocating broader structural changes and reiterating his support for the reform committee.
Meanwhile, the adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert opened formal adjudicatory proceedings against Blatter and Michel Platini, Uefa's president and Blatter's former ally. They are both serving a provisional suspension of 90 days from the organization's ethics committee relating to an allegedly disloyal payment of 2 million Swiss francs to Platini. Blatter and Platini, who both deny any wrongdoing, have lost their appeals against the suspension earlier this month. Platini has lodged an appeal with the court of arbitration for sports against the suspension, which is holding up his application to run for the Fifa presidency in February.
The ethics committee said the start of the proceedings is based on the final reports submitted by the investigatory chamber. The requested sanctions weren't publicized due to privacy rights and the presumption of innocence. The adjudicatory chamber intends to come to a decision in both cases during the month of December. Last month the Swiss attorney general's office said it was opening criminal proceedings against Blatter on suspicion of criminal mismanagement or – alternatively – misappropriation.
