Why FIFA must support election of an interim committee

In my 26 December 2007 article I outlined the lines of a debate that is sharpening among the Maldives football community. The debate is over the validity of the FIFA proposed interim arrangement. I have argued that this FIFA backed process was conceived on a flawed assessment of the ground reality.

The facts on the ground are that the Maldives have the necessary legal mechanisms to deal with the sort of situation faced by the national football association. The new Articles of Association enacted in 2003 requires the FA to be dissolved as the founder (government) failed to transit within the one year time frame specified by the transitional clause or Article 36 (b). The FIFA was three years too late in coming to the rescue of a member association that had already been suffocated to death by its founder.

I claimed the FIFA process lacked a legal basis. It also now appears the two month old process is not really working. The process need to be reviewed.

This is alarming for Maldives football. It is therefore a good time to reflect on the impact of this process. I will then follow up on these reflections by putting forward an alternative proposal that I feel could avoid the negative impact of the ongoing FIFA backed process. After all FIFA’s objective as a responsible global civil society organization is to find a means of “re-constituting” the FA and to give it “new life”. The previous life of the FA had been sucked out by the government.

I however feel a brief explanation of the historical context in which the more recent laws of association have evolved in the Maldives and how the government has meddled in sport will help the reader to get a better grip of the case of the Maldives FA. I shall therefore begin with the history.

Historical context of the Laws of Association

A brief but brutal law of association (law no. 26/82) was passed on 10 November 1982. It specified associations as registered when two citizens over 25 years sought a permit from the Home Ministry. The law granted the Minister the discretion to lay down the rules and regulations for civil society functioning. Furthermore the law stressed the responsibility for the association on the individual founders’ shoulders rather an elected body.

The concept of democratically elected office bearers assuming responsibility for the association was categorically avoided. This was left to the Minister’s discretion. The Minister even had the “luxury” of claiming it unlawful for founders to leave an association without his consent. The law was more like a “trap” to discourage civil society development. This left the government as the only party with the security and control to shape civil society associations in this country.

Exactly 51 days after the law was passed, on 1 January 1983 the government obtained permits to register 8 national sports associations. Football was one. Their may be stranger laws, but the Maldives law of association would fall into a rare category. Not many countries could have been hatching “government NGOs” in 1982. It was apparent that this law was intended to shape sports as a political tool of a dictator. The status quo remained so till the year 2003

Challenge to undemocratic law: The challenge came about when in the year 2000 a group of distinguished liberal democrats applied to register a political party under this archaic law. In a panic the government of President Gayoom felt it better to let people associate under civil society organizations than allow political parties. The shock squeezed out the first “reformist” law, the Articles of Association of 2003. Gayoom was able to hold on only two more years before he was forced to allow political parties in 2005.

This law (1/2003) is a historic law. It was passed in a panic and “grudgingly”. By the time this law was passed the government had doubled its share of sports associations to 16. This law required founders to hand over the association to elected office bearers within one year. The government as founder blatantly refused to hold elections within the transition period specified in Article 36 (b) of this law. This is testament to the depth of autocratic governance of a dictator. The Home Minister assists his colleague the Sports Minister by getting the Registrar of Clubs and Societies to illegally authorize indefinite extensions to the transition period. This is the 4th year of extension! The status quo is maintained, illegally if necessary.

A sophisticated global sport organization such as the FIFA should have been better prepared. The FIFA should have been aware that the Maldives is not a state governed by the rule of law and acted with caution. I will now outline the ongoing process followed by a description of an alternative proposal.

Ongoing process

The legal predicament faced by the FIFA backed process is that the country’s laws prohibit any individual or group of individuals to act on behalf of an association without the consent of members of that association (Articles 16 & 24). This is consistent with the FIFA Statutes (Article 17).

Pushing aside the incumbent government appointed administration and replacing it with another set of appointees does not make FIFA any better than the government. FIFA is interfering with the internal affairs of a sovereign state. The FIFA have the power to caution, suspend or expel the Maldives FA, but not the right to directly interfere in our internal affairs in breach of the country’s laws.

We all know the FIFA have taken a more civilized approach with larger countries both developed and developing. The FIFA represented itself at the highest level with Nigeria and Poland successfully to lobby to amend laws of these countries in line with FIFA requirements. There is also an ongoing issue with Spain. FIFA simply banned Greece and got its way. The EU’s recent recognition of the specific nature of sport and a recent Swiss court ruling that gave the FIFA jurisdiction to stop clubs resorting to courts of law rather than FIFA mediated arbitration and the recent understanding reached with the G14 European clubs is testament to the capacity and powers entrusted in FIFA.

Therefore, the Maldives is a very simple and straight forward case for the FIFA. The world body have the necessary carrot (for example the goal program) and stick (the threat of expulsion) to discipline the Maldives government. I therefore see no need for the FIFA to jet in the Secretary General of the AFC and cut a corrupt “deal” with a corrupt government. The FIFA simply had to demand that the government act in the spirit of Fair Play for the “Good of the Game”! After all this is how we have come to symbolize FIFA. Unlike Nigeria or Poland, the Maldives already have the legal mechanisms required to solve the issue internally. There was absolutely no reason for an “underhand deal” in favor of the guilty party.

FIFA breaching its own statutes: It now appears the FIFA is in not only in breach of Maldives Law. It is breaching its own Statutes.

If this process continues unchecked, it is almost certain that government nominees will be re-instated. The newly appointed chairman considered it his main objective to splash out on an annual award ceremony within the first two months of the interim period. He said so in his nationally televised speech. Chairman Shahir then praised President Gayoom and called for members to recognize the “rightful appreciation” this dictator deserved for his “kind” contribution to football. The Chairman’s football award splash on 8 Jan 2008 coincided with the day President Gayoom was attacked by a knife wielding youth. Chairman Shahir’s praise of the dictator was met with muted silence from the attending football leaders. It appears it is only the FIFA appointed chairman who thought President Gayoom deserved praise! One cannot help wondering why the FIFA is breaching its own goal of curbing government influence in the case of Maldives football.

FIFA Associations Committee: This is an issue for the FIFA Associations Committee to consider. The last meeting of this committee was held on 28 October 2007 in Zurich. The committee was reported to have discussed some eleven countries with problems of mostly governmental interference. The Maldives is yet to be discussed at this committee. Dato’ Paul was here two days before this committee met in Zurich.

The FIFA website reported its Associations Committee chair FIFA Vice President (England) Geoff Thompson as stating “We need to uphold our statutes for the protection of the game in countries that face difficulties, whether through internal strife or external governmental interference” He went on to say that “we must be strong and we must be fair”! Mr. Thompson’s words echoes eerily in our ears. The FIFA visited Maldives only two days before the FIFA Vice President made this powerful policy statement.

The visiting FIFA official did not notice “internal strife” (political polarization). The Dato’s spirit of fair play was to offer a soft landing for the government by selecting the government’s choice of members to “the FIFA” interim committee. This sort of behaviour is not uncommon among the FIFA family. On 9 January the Iranian FA, under such a FIFA committee held yet another election with one candidate for the Iran FA Presidency. On 16 Jan, last Wednesday the Dominican soccer federation complained to the FIFA about its regional President Jack Warner ordering their executive body dismissed.

Review Maldives case: I hope the FIFA Associations Committee at its next meeting will review the activities of the Maldives interim committee and how it has come about. FIFA reports that “the primary focus of this committee was to receive reports, discuss the many challenges facing FIFA’s member associations around the world and decide upon the best steps forward to ensure progress in resolving the outstanding issues”. The Maldives file will be interesting reading!

The FIFA appointed interim committees’ actions so far clearly breach FIFA Statutes. The committee has already unilaterally announced that it intends to restrict voting rights to only a third of the FA membership. This process is designed to re-install regime figures. This will cause the association to slide back from what little progress it had made.

This however is not the intention of the FIFA. FIFA wants a strong independent and progressive association. This is unfortunately not possible because the FIFA appointed committee of non-members do not possess the democratic mandate or the ability to deliver an independent election which is obviously necessary to jumpstart a self-governing association. Self governance is a noble objective both Maldives Football and FIFA equally share.

Alternative scenario

While hoping the FIFA will review the ongoing process, I propose an alternative scenario or process. In such a scenario, the currant interim committee of appointed individuals takes up the mandate of a “FIFA agent”. Such an agent will be an “administrator” rather than a “decision maker” of the process. This approach fits within local (Maldives) as well as the international (FIFA’s) legal framework. The ongoing process does not.

Elect interim committee: The Interim Transition Committee must be elected by members’ bodies that fulfill the criteria outlined in Article 16 (a) and clarified for our purposes in Article 24 of the Law of Association of this country. The law states that affairs of an association shall be overseen by elected or appointed members’ bodies. This in turn is totally consistent with Article 17 of the FIFA statutes.

The FIFA agent then implements the roadmap ratified by the elected interim transition committee. This approach of an elected committee is necessary for two reasons. One is the founder (government) have failed to “let go” of the football association within the one year deadline of May 2004 as stipulated in the country’s law. Subsequent to this, the Registrar of Clubs and Societies continue to assume this one year transition period can be extended indefinitely. The obvious intention is to “protect” these relics, the “government NGOs”. Now almost four years on, the Registrar (government) has suffocated the FA to its death. The government has dropped the Maldives FA on the FIFA’s lap and the FIFA seems to have rather graciously accepted a dead body!

Re-constitute the FA: I therefore believe what we should be doing now is to “re-constitute” a “new” association. This seems to be the only choice if we are to play fair and honor the rule of law.

The government continues to unlawfully restrict civil rights of Maldivians to associate. In this instance the government (Sports Minister and the Registrar) is blatantly restricting Maldivians to freely associate within the law to develop association football. FIFA should be seriously concerned about the negative social impact of this restriction on football development in this country. It is astounding to see the FIFA embroiled in this illegal act. FIFA should back off immediately.

In this alternative scenario the FIFA agent is effectively liaising between national level member’s bodies and the world level parent body. Such a strategy will deliver a process that have “legal currency” and therefore necessary checks and balances from the word go. This is a bottom up process that will work better than the ongoing top down process.

Summary

The ongoing process launched by the FIFA to oversee the Maldives FA’s transition face serious legal setbacks. The fact that the committee was appointed and the appointees did not represent members’ bodies contravenes the country’s laws as well as the FIFA statutes. An alternative process that fits within a legal framework in both the domestic and international contexts was proposed. This is to re-conceptualize the present interim committee as a “FIFA Agent” assigned to facilitate and administer this process. It is only a democratically elected committee that can justify the mandate to decide on a transitional or more specifically a re-constitution roadmap.