FIFA reform body sets date for first meeting

Paris, France (AFP) — FIFA’s Reform Committee, which has been tasked with cleaning up football’s corruption-hit world governing body, will meet for the first time on September 2-3.

The committee, created by outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter after a series of damaging allegations and a number of arrests of high-profile officials, will meet in Bern.

“The first meeting of the 2016 FIFA Reform Committee will be held in the Swiss capital of Bern on 2-3 September 2015,” said chairman Francois Carrard in a statement.

“No further comments on the meeting will be provided at this time.”

Carrard, a 77-year-old Swiss lawyer, previously guided the International Olympic Committee through its own governance reforms in the wake of the bribery scandal-hit Winter Olympics of 2002.

FIFA is currently reeling from its own corruption turmoil after seven football officials were arrested in a raid on a Zurich hotel on the eve of a FIFA congress in May.

The Reform Committee will provide a preliminary update to the FIFA Executive Committee at its regular quarterly meeting on September 24-25, FIFA said in a statement.