In the last few years, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has been linked to negative headlines revolving around the corruption scandal of their top managers and scandals involving the voting for the 2022 World Cup, TV rights and World Cup tickets.

Within FIFA, the Independent Ethics Committee is entrusted with handling any cases in conjunction with the FIFA Code of Ethics (CoE) or any other FIFA rules and regulations. During the summer of 2016, just before the opening ceremony of the Rio Summer Olympics, the eyes of the football world were, once again, pointed at the Ethics Committee of FIFA. Following the bold and surprising decision on 8 October 2015 to provisionally ban the acting FIFA President, Joseph S. Blatter, the UEFA President Michel Platini and the FIFA Secretary General Jérome Valcke, the Ethics Committee had to decide on the fate of the acting president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino.

Infantino was elected into office on 26 February 2016 and was supposed to wash FIFA clean of any lingering mistrust in the association and its management. However, less than six months after having taken over the reins of FIFA, Infantino faced charges of infringements against the CoE. On 5 August 2016, the Ethics Committee, however, did not initiate proceedings against Infantino and considered it clear beforehand that he had not violated the CoE. The decision of the Committee may have exonerated the newly elected president of FIFA, but it stands in stark contrast to its past decisions against high level employees of FIFA and is highly criticized by several legal experts, including Mark Pieth, who openly stated to be appalled and sad about the recent decision.

It seems FIFA may have trouble learning from its mistakes in the past. What however is the role of the Ethics Committee of FIFA in this constellation? The Ethics Committee was originally established in 2006, following corruption allegations against referees. It was then restructured with the overwhelming approval at the FIFA Congress on 25 May 2012. Of the three judicial bodies of FIFA, the Ethics Committee has undergone the deepest reform to its composition and functioning. The powers given to the Ethics Committee were impressive and not comparable to any other internal governance structure known under Swiss law. In the wake of the decision regarding Infantino and, taking into consideration the decisions of the reformed Ethics Committee of the last four years, it is time to give the FIFA Ethics Committee a report card.