Geneva (AFP) – When the Olympic movement and international football experienced very public corruption crises, both agreed to limit the terms of office of their presidents in an attempt to protect them in the future. Everyone is now on track to roll back this policy.
Limiting the terms of their presidents to only 12 years was an attempt to rein in power cliques and patronage that could allow misconduct to flourish.
This pillar of good governance currently faces stiff opposition within the International Olympic Committee and UEFA, which are moving towards allowing their presidents, Thomas Bach and Aleksander Ceferin, respectively, to remain in the top job for 16 or 15 years.
Ahead of its annual congress in February, UEFA plans to amend its statute on presidential term limits – something FIFA has already done to President Gianni Infantino in relative secrecy in Moscow in 2018.
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“It reminds me a little bit of Putin,” Mark Peth, a former anti-corruption adviser at FIFA, told The Associated Press in a phone interview this week, comparing the moves to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin oversaw constitutional changes that could see him remain president from 2000 to 2036, with only a four-year side step from 2008 to 2012 to become prime minister when he barely relinquished power.
“When we worked on the original FIFA reforms, (term limits) was one of the key points,” said Bethe, whose advice to FIFA starting in 2011 was to cap senior officials on two four-year terms like the US presidency. “Otherwise, you are inviting corruption.”
The European Union did not respond directly to Bethe’s comments.
Bethe is a law professor from Switzerland, the tax-friendly country and home to the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, and UEFA — organizations that Bethe described as “authoritarian regimes” with little or no oversight.
“If the system stays there for a long time it becomes entrenched and excludes others. “There’s a logic to this that you don’t stay forever,” Beth said.
When the Salt Lake scandal exposed IOC members receiving a range of perks and privileges, its then president Juan Antonio Samaranch remained in office for 18 years.
At FIFA, Sepp Blatter was elected in 1998 and won again 13 years later when a bribery scandal involved former allies who opposed him. His presidency ended after 17 years in the fallout from a sweeping soccer bribery investigation by the US Department of Justice.
When the IOC and FIFA undertook their respective radical reforms, in 2000 and 2015, future presidents Bach and Infantino were key players in the process.
Bach, Infantino and Ceferin were all lawyers before being elected to leadership roles that give them access to heads of state and – in football jobs – pay around $3 million a year. The International Olympic Committee is paying Bach 275,000 euros ($300,000) to cover some personal expenses.
A term limit is “very logical and necessary,” Bach said in October, after some IOC members questioned how the Olympic Charter could be changed to allow him to have an additional four years until 2029. They pointed to the need for stability in times of pandemic and war.
However, Bach told the IOC’s 100 members that their request to keep him in office despite the rules “went straight to my heart”, and he has since refused to reject the proposal. Members of the International Olympic Committee will meet next July in Paris.
The French capital will also host UEFA’s 55 member states on February 8 for an expected vote allowing Ceferin to run again in 2027.
Ceferin and Infantino were both elected in 2016 to replace ousted presidents Michel Platini and Blatter, respectively, who were sacked early in the fallout from US and Swiss investigations into FIFA.
By starting their presidency with a partial three-year term, Ceferin and Infantino were to have a maximum term of 11 years. By amending the legal codes so that the first three years do not count toward the maximum, their presidency could be extended to 15 years.
UEFA said in a statement this week that its executive committee, chaired by Ceferin on December 2 in Hamburg, Germany, had approved a proposal “to clarify some existing provisions to ensure that none of them are applied retrospectively – in line with a fundamental legal principle.”
UEFA did not announce the proposal in its press release after the meeting and did not say why it wanted to do so. UEFA also did not hold a press conference after any of its six executive meetings in 2023.
“The feeling is they’re all the same,” Beth said of the wealthy sporting bodies. “Worse still is UEFA, where it has looked relatively okay so far.”
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In recent years, both the Olympics and the world of football have been marred by corruption scandals, leading to a widespread loss of trust in their leadership. However, in a surprising turn of events, there are now discussions within these organizations about extending the terms of their presidents, allowing them to stay in power for longer periods of time. This shift in policy comes as a response to the need for stability and continuity amidst the turmoil and uncertainty that has plagued these sports institutions. While some applaud the potential for long-term leadership, others are concerned about the implications of concentrating power in the hands of a single individual. Nonetheless, the decision to allow presidents to stay in power longer marks a significant development in the governance of these iconic sports entities.