Football officials and players will find the word “Corruption” deleted from the latest version of the code of ethics governing their conduct.
FIFA has introduced a new offence in the ethics code – defamation.
“Persons bound by this code are forbidden from making any public statements of a defamatory nature towards FIFA and/or towards any other person bound by this code in the context of FIFA events,” section 22.2 of the new code affirms.
The ethics code was first introduced in 2004 by FIFA ex-president Sepp Blatter, but it was that code that ended up getting Blatter barred from the FIFA presidency for financial misdemeanours in 2015.
Blatter's ousting came amid the fallout from American prosecutors indicting dozens of football officials and entities for corruption – the concept now expunged by FIFA from its principle English-language ethics documents.
The code now states that ethics prosecutors have five years to conclude cases into other general breaches of the code – half the preceding time permitted to unearth misconduct.
The new code lets lead ethics prosecutor Maria Claudia Rojas to enter into plea bargains to resolve cases that do not entail bribery, embezzlement of funds or match-fixing.
This article was most recently revised and updated 4 years ago
