Former anti-corruption adviser Michael Hershman said that the departure of FIFA audit panel Chair Domenico Scala in a dispute with President Gianni Infantino "will hurt efforts to reform the scandal-hit" football body, according to Graham Dunbar of the AP.
Hershman helped bring Scala to FIFA in '12 and said his exit is "the worst thing that could have happened." Hershman, the American co-founder of Transparency Int'l, said,
"One of the few shining lights we had was Domenico. Now that he has gone, my skepticism is even greater."
Hershman spoke from Doha ahead of being announced as CEO of the Qatar-funded Int'l Centre for Sport Security.
Scala resigned last month "after his working relationship with Infantino broke down." Last year, Scala "proposed a slate of reforms amid FIFA's corruption-fueled crisis that was the basis of modernizing changes drafted by a panel which included Infantino." Hershman: "I remain convinced now more than ever that FIFA, if it is to survive, there must be independent oversight because they have no credibility" (AP, 6/2).
