War Crimes Prosecutor Set for FIFA Role; Warner Escapes Prosecution

(WFI) International war crimes prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is the lead candidate to head the investigating body of FIFA's new two-chamber ethics committee.

FIFA's anti-corruption adviser Mark Pieth told media that Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, is the top choice on a shortlist for the role.

With his ICC term ending in June, the 59-year-old Argentinian appears to be a good fit for the FIFA position.

On Friday, FIFA Congress delegates voted on several reforms to clean-up world football's governing body following a string of bribery scandals over the past 18 months linked to the 2018/ 2022 World Cup bidding race and the FIFA presidential election.

One of these was support for the creation of a new two-chamber ethics committee - one for investigation , the other for adjudication. Delegates gave the FIFA Ex-Co power to elect the chairmen at their June 29 meeting.

Moreno-Ocampo's nomination will be discussed at that meeting before the names of both chairmen are announced. He is a former president of Transparency International's Latin American and Caribbean division. The organisation played a part in launching FIFA's reform proposals last year.

In other FIFA news, it emerged Tuesday that the federation's former vice president Jack Warner will not be prosecuted in Trinidad over allegations he colluded with Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam to bribe Caribbean Football Union officials.

The director of public prosecutions ordered the termination of investigations into the bribery plot involving the former president of the Caribbean Football Union.

Warner, Trinidad's deputy prime minister, quit FIFA and also his CONCACAF presidency last June before he could face ethics committee sanctions for his part in the scandal. Bin Hammam was handed a lifetime ban after being found guilty of attempting to bribe CFU members to win their votes in his bid to oust Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.

Warner told the Trinidad Express: "I said from day one that there is nothing in the matter and I maintain that.

"But there are forces out there that are trying to recreate something from time immemorial and there is nothing that they can recreate."


By INSIDER editor Mark Bisson

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