Interview with Anne Brasseur: “For many experts, true independence of FIFA supervisory bodies today does not seem to be secured and this is also my conclusion”

Anne Brasseur has been a Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 1993 to 1999 and since 2004. She was the PACE rapporteur on "combatting match-fixing" Report (2012) and more recently on the "Good Football Governance Report", published on 4 December 2017. In this latest report, she states that "the crisis in confidence seems nowhere near the end." Indeed, Mrs Brasseur explains that, although they should, "some federations are not capable of regulating themselves", and that football must be governed based on fair play, respect and tolerance.

For what reasons did you write this report on good football governance?

Since 2011 the Parliamentary Assembly has been working on the issue of good governance and ethics in sport. In this context, the football world deserved - and received - special attention. This was not necessarily because its problems were different, or that the situation was worse than in other sports. However, football is certainly the most important and most followed sport in the World and it is also the one which generates the highest financial flows. Therefore, governance problems in football institutions have a very serious impact and, in turn, progress made in football governance can have tremendous positive results.

My report is therefore a logical continuation of our previous...

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