Sports integrity chief warns the eyes of the world are watching FIFA

Sponsors and fans will turn their back on FIFA if it is not fully transparent over the World Cup private investor plan and the Folarin Balogun case, a sports integrity chief has warned.

To date FIFA has not committed to any external independent review of how its president Gianni Infantino developed the hugely-controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, nor made any pledge to disclose information around the decision to suspend a one-match ban for United States striker Balogun during last summer's World Cup after US President Donald Trump called Infantino asking for a review.

Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, the co-founder and global chief executive of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), believes even if FIFA can withstand pressure to examine the facts from individual FIFA Council members, national associations and leagues, there will ultimately be external consequences.

"The eyes of the world are on FIFA and the way this situation will be addressed and resolved," Medeiros told the Press Association.

"Yes, the sponsors have been silent. We have not heard the sponsors expressing themselves as they did during the FIFAgate [scandal] back in 2015.

"But I would not confuse silence with apathy or indifference. I would not underestimate that, because every executive, every CEO of every big brand responds to somebody. They are accountable to their consumers.

"They are accountable to the market, and they are accountable to their shareholders, and there is one thing that shareholders don't like -- to see their brands engulfed in murky or controversial situations, because this devalues the brand."

Medeiros also believes the possibility of fans voting with their feet should not be discounted, or underestimated.

"Beware of the patience of the fans," he added, in an interview to mark Sport Integrity Action Month.

"The fans have expressed themselves in multiple situations, [including] when we had the attempt to create the breakaway Super League.

"They are trendsetters in a cluster that has a growing commercial component and their views and opinions must be taken into account.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we see increasing manifestations [of discontent] from the fans, like we are seeing in every European city.

"Those who have the responsibility of running sports organisations of this calibre need to be very attentive to the signs that current times are issuing."

FIFA has pledged to let Council members come to its headquarters in Zurich and view documents linked to the FFE plan, but Medeiros said ultimately the key facts surrounding it must be placed in the public domain.

"The public also needs credible explanation on the findings and the actions taken," he said.

"It's not water under the bridge. Organisations are accountable, and if they want it to be taken seriously, to earn the trust and the confidence of the entire industry, there is only one way to ensure that, and I'm sorry to say it's not by homemade working groups or task forces.

"In today's world actions speak louder than words, and results speak louder than intentions, and that requires an independent assessment of all these cases and how FIFA is governed and operated."