ECA Warn FIFA Over Impatience with Soccer Governance
February 9, 2011
Members representing the continent’s major soccer clubs of the European Club Association (ECA), have warned soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, that they are running out of patience with how the sport is governed on the world stage.
Yesterday, February 8, the ECA demanded a greater say in FIFA’s decisions, criticising the body over the confusion amid speculation of a possible switch of the 2022 Qatar World Cup to the winter.
The association’s discontent comes after FIFA President Sepp Blatter appeared to make a major u-turn in the proposals to reschedule world soccer’s flagship event. Blatter had previously backed the plans to move the event to the winter months due to soaring temperatures in the Middle Eastern gulf during the tournaments regular schedule. On Monday, February 7, Blatter and FIFA revealed that the Qatar based event had been “settled for summer”.
ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge spoke after he 136-member association’s general assembly in Geneva, stating: “The time for monopolies is over. Football needs democracy and transparency.”
“ECA members agree that all clubs must be meaningfully involved in all decisions affecting club football. Now is the time for change.
In a statement, the ECA expressed its “concern on the way matters of such importance are managed by football’s world governing body” and its opposition to the “disruption” of the possibility of a winter World Cup.
