Worldwide Football Associations 'lack transparency'

Too many FIFA member federations are secretive about what they do and how they spend money, according to an anti-corruption monitor's study.

A total of 168 of the 209 FIFA members fail to make financial reports publicly available, Transparency International said in research published Thursday.

Its report reveals that 81 per cent of FAs have no financial records publicly available, 21 per cent of FAs have no website, and 85 per cent of FAs publish no accounts.

Only 14 of FIFA's 209 football associations publish the minimum amount of information necessary to let people know what they do and how they spend their money, and they include England, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland - but not Wales or Scotland.

The other nations are Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Portugal.

"The risk of corruption at too many football associations around the world is high," TI managing director Cobus de Swardt said. "This problem is made worse by the lack of information such as audited financial statements by many associations."

The research follows criminal investigations of senior FIFA officials launched by federal prosecutors in the United States and Switzerland.

Greater scrutiny of finances should be a key part of changing the culture of FIFA and its members, Transparency International suggested.

"This lack of transparency and accountability is unfortunately not limited to FIFA's headquarters," the document said. "Any reform of FIFA will have to make that a priority."

Only two of FIFA's six continental confederations European body UEFA and Africa's CAF  revealed their annual accounts, the not-for-profit group stated in its 16-page document.

"Other than a partial accounting on the FIFA web site, there is no clear way to track what the (members) did with all that money," the report said.

This lack of transparency and accountability is unfortunately not limited to FIFA's headquarters. Any reform of FIFA will have to make that a priority.

Four measures were set by TI as minimum steps to being transparent: Publishing audited financial accounts, an annual activity report, a code of conduct and organisational statutes.

A total 87 national federations scored zero in the transparency test, including the home bodies of four FIFA Executive Committee members: Congo, Cyprus, Kuwait and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Russia, the 2018 World Cup host, met two of the four requirements and 2022 host Qatar scored zero. Neither federation published financial accounts.

The front page of the report features a picture of Blatter being showered with money by a British comedian in July.