FIFA’s lawyers abandon ship as move to Miami encounters heavy seas

May 23 – The transfer of FIFA’s legal department in its entirety to the world governing body’s new offices in Coral Gables in Miami is proving a disaster with reports that only 20 to 25 of the roughly 120 legal executives will complete the move.

This would leave the organisation woefully understaffed at a key time as it prepares for the debut of the expanded 2025 Club World Cup in the US and the 2026 World Cup which will have 48 teams competing for the first time in the US, Canada and Mexico.

The transition of legal personnel, announced in September 2023 by the FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura, expected the move to complete within a few months.

In reality the outcome of the announcement has been a mass exodus of senior legal personnel disillusioned with FIFA’s leadership, and moral at an all-time low.

One FIFA insider told Insideworldfootball that “this is a sinking ship. No-one works any more, people don’t receive answers internally, and member federations don’t either. With section heads leaving there has been the over-promotion of lawyers within FIFA who just aren’t ready for the role. This has led to more problems and chaos.”

FIFA is undergoing a recruitment process in the US, but finding legal specialists versed in the specifics of FIFA’s statutes, regulations and procedures, and the football business, is not a straightforward process.

FIFA’s law department has to not only know its own rules and regs, but also the mechanics of the football industry from transfer windows and deal structures, to the FIFA Clearing House, competition specific rules, as well as increasingly complicated broadcast and commercial sponsorship and licensing contracts.

On top of this the move to the US requires an understanding of US law and practices, which are different to European and Swiss laws. While Congress agreed to change a number of FIFA’s statutes last week in Bangkok, there are still multiple references to Swiss laws in the statutes, and…

Source link : https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2024/05/23/fifas-lawyers-abandon-ship-move-miami-encounters-heavy-seas/

Author : Paul Nicholson

Publish date : 2024-05-23 06:08:38

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