Justifying an "overhaul of its ethics code," FIFA said on Tuesday that people who "tarnish the reputations of others" must be banned from football, according to the AP. It was reported on Monday that a new offense of defamation was added to the document governing the conduct of participants in the sport, "with scope for a ban of up to five years from the game." While the code "provides no precise definition of defamation," FIFA said in a statement that it is "the act of communicating false information that harms the reputation of an individual or a group." The ethics committee will determine what constitutes "false information." Amid criticism from some football federation presidents of his decision to oust the organization's ethics judge and prosecutor in '17, FIFA President Gianni Infantino decried "fake news and alternative facts about FIFA" during a speech to member associations. When later asked to provide examples, Infantino backtracked, saying that it was "my feeling ... there are a lot of people spreading a lot of wrong and false information." FIFA outlined the "landmark changes" in a statement published a day after the AP disclosed how the new code, "which was distributed without a public announcement" to football officials, varied from the previous '12 edition. Cases of bribery, misappropriation of funds and manipulation of matches "must now be prosecuted within 10 years of the offense." In the previous edition of the code, prosecution for "bribery and corruption" was not subject to a "limitation period." FIFA said, "Although the new code has introduced new time limits for certain serious infringements, the ethics committee believes that ten years (or 15 years if an investigation is open) is a sufficient period of time in which to complete the investigation in cases of serious infringements." FIFA said that changes to the ethics code "ensure more transparency." The organization "declined to make ethics judge Vassilios Skouris or prosecutor Maria Claudia Rojas available to answer media questions" (AP, 8/15).
