Football Governance News

Palestine, 2027 World Cup vote and racism to take centre stage at FIFA Congress

May 16, 2024 – On Friday, Palestine, the 2027 Women’s World Cup, a series of amendments to the FIFA Statutes and racism will take centre stage at the FIFA Congress in the Thai capital.

Scandal Brought Reforms to Soccer. Its Leaders Are Rolling Them Back.

May 15, 2024 - FIFA tried to put a corruption crisis behind by changing its rules and claiming its governance overhaul had the endorsement of the Justice Department. US officials say that was never the case.

SAFA's Annual Financial Statements for 2022-2023 SHows Huge Losses

2024-05-10 - SAFA posts its 2022/2023 Annual Financial Report - A case study. Revising assets and liabilities upwards and downwards to make the company look better on paper can only get one so far.

Defiant Danny Jordaan says 'all is well' at Safa House

2024-04-13 - South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan came out of the ordinary congress on Saturday in a fiery mood as he vehemently defended the organisation by confirming they have turned to the high court to have the recent raid by the Hawks at their office declared invalid.

Safa financial report shows shortfall of R107m as auditors sound alarm

2024-05-10 - Auditors Sondlo Chartered Accountants, in a statement echoed by Safa's national executive committee (NEC), said in a letter contained in the report the year’s operating loss and shortfall mean “a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the association’s ability to continue as a going concern”.

SAFA approves implementation of coaching standards in SA from 2024/2025 season

2023-12-10 - The long-awaited implementation of the coaching standards in South African football as part of the CAF club licensing regulations, will finally come into effect at the beginning of the 2024/2025 season.

24 July 2023 – This dispute concerns the legality of the new FIFA Football Agents Regulations (“FFAR”), that the FIFA Council approved on 16 December 2022, in its meeting in Doha, Qatar.

The Archive

I. Human rights in sport regulations
II. Selected CAS cases related to human rights issues
III. Sport and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
IV. SFT judgements dealing with the application of human rights in CAS matters
V. List of CAS arbitrators with specific expertise in human rights
VI. List of topics related to Human Rights in sport discussed at past CAS seminars

Click here to read the document …

CAS once again confirmed that:

1. In order to impose a sanction to a direct or indirect member, the relevant body of a sport Federation which imposed said sanction must have an attributed competence to do so.
2. A decision that has been characterized as a “punishment” or a “penalty” must be qualified as a disciplinary measure.
3. For a sanction to be imposed, a sports regulation must prescribe the misconduct with which the subject is charged, i.e., nulla poena sine lege (principle of legality), and the rule must be clear and precise, i.e., nulla poene sine lege clara (principle of predictability).

Click here to read the full ruling.

Watch transparency in action as COSAFA broadcasts its entire AGM live. Click here to watch the full proceedings of the 2023 COSAFA AGM

Since 2011, Play the Game has worked with leading academic experts and actors in sport to develop tools to benchmark and develop good governance practices in sports organisations at all levels.

Click here to read the full article …

On this theme page, you can find

  • an introduction to Play the Game’s approach to benchmarking sports governance

  • an overview of Play the Game’s governance projects in historical order

  • link to our theme page about how you can do your own governance benchmarking of international and national sports organisations

  • links to all publications from our governance projects

Play the Game has launched two online tools that allow anyone to benchmark an international sports federation or national sports organisation following the principles of our governance observer tools. Click here to download the tool. 

On this theme page you will find information about and links to the two tools

  • The Sport Governance Observer tool (SGO tool)

  • The National Sports Governance Observer tool

  • (NSGO tool)

FIFA and WHO extend Memorandum of Understanding for four more years

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and FIFA President Gianni Infantino sign new agreement in Geneva, Switzerland

Click here for the full story

On 30 March 2023 the Premier League announced various changes to its Owners and Directors Test (“OADT”) which significantly expand its ambit.[1] The redraft of the OADT was published on 6 April 2023 and became effective immediately. The OADT is set out in Section F of the Premier League Handbook.[2] It applies to anyone who becomes an owner of a Premier League club (i.e. someone who obtains control of a club) and anyone who becomes a director of a club. The test applies upon the control or appointment event occurring but is also an ongoing test.

The test principally sets out a list of circumstances in which a person is disqualified from being an Owner or Director of a football club.

Click here to read the article

By Nick Said – 8 May 2023

That South Africa has just a single player featuring in Europe’s top five leagues is a telling indictment of the country’s football, which has seemingly been left behind by the rest of the world.

ForbesAfrica.com

Click here to read the full article in Forbes Africa.

UEFA’s latest benchmarking report found 180 clubs worldwide with around 6,500 players under contract in 2022, but Play the Game’s more recent research identified 256 clubs with shareholders or owners with significant stakes or influence in other clubs.

Using the same metric as UEFA, the number of clubs identified by Play the Game suggests more than 9,000 players are under contract at clubs in MCOs. Some of these clubs will also have relationships with academies that tie in players, so that figure is probably substantially larger.

Click here to read the full report.

By Dennis A. Mumble – March 2022

This paper examines whether the 2022 changes to the SAFA Statutes meet the FIFA alignment objectives and demonstrates how SAFA’s Members have been disempowered by a clique at the top of the governance ladder.

On 13 August 2021, the SAFA NEC resolved to appoint a Task Team of three NEC Members to engage SAFA Members and to conduct a workshop with them “to include the Regional and Provincial structures” and “to ensure alignment with FIFA and CAF”.

Click here for the full story …

New Safa CEO promises to hit the ground running.

Monyepao aware her predecessors complained of Jordaan’s ‘meddling’. SowetanLive – 09 May 2023 – 08:23

Dennis Mumble in Light Grey Suit
Mumble responds to SAFA president with scathing attack

Former South African Football Association (SAFA) chief executive officer Dennis Mumble has launched a scathing attack on ex-boss Danny Jordaan following a week of high drama at the mother body’s headquarters in Nasrec. SABC Sport - 10 May 2023

Listen: Dennis Mumble Interview - SNAWA on Metro FM - 9 May 2023

Listen to Dennis Mumble's full response to Danny Jordaan's false claims about the reasons for his departure from SAFA. Click on the title or picture to start listening ...

Watch: Dennis Mumble Interview - SNAWA on Metro FM - 9 May 2023

Watch Dennis Mumble's full response to Danny Jordaan's false claims about the reasons for his departure from SAFA. Click on the title or picture to watch the video ...

Watch: Dennis Mumble Critiques the 2022 SAFA Elections

Former SAFA CEO Dennis Mumble didn't mince his words in his criticism of the football association's running of its affairs, and the lead-up to the June 25 presidential elections. He spoke to Newzroom Afrika's Benjamin Leshoro.
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|| Tune into Newzroom Afrika, DSTV channel 405, for more details. - 11 May 2022

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