A kind of non-denial denial is not something I expect to receive when making enquiries for Compliance Week. I expect accountancy firms under investigation by the FRC not to want to speak to me on the record, but not a non-denial denial. But that is what I got from FIFA’s press office after a simple enquiry as to the status of the chairmen of their ethics committee following widespread press reports of their firing. I asked where the official announcement of their termination could be found and received this answer: “There is no official announcement, because the fact is that they haven’t been fired. Based on the FIFA Statutes (article 27 and 52.5), the chairpersons, deputy chairpersons, and other members of the judicial bodies are elected by the FIFA Congress. Their terms shall last four years, beginning at the end of the Congress, which has elected them.”
