Javier Tebas on FIFA's future: "We need a cultural revolution"

The global summit bringing together the most influential personalities in the world of sport, business and media was held in the Austrian town of Kitzbuhel. There, Javier Tebas has attended to the Camp Beckenbauer. In the panel discussions dedicated to the future of football, the president of LaLiga participated in the roundtable entitled “Quo Vadis, FIFA”, where he called for "a revolution and a fundamental cultural change."

Tebas insisted that the current directors of FIFA cannot carry out this revolucione, as they are part of the system. "Football is in hands of bureaucrats. For a revolution to happen, it is not to change the rules or change committees, we need a cultural revolution. Michel Platini cannot make a change because he is also part of the system, though not at the same level ". Javier Tebas added that corruption affects not only the financial aspects, but also the pressure that FIFA is putting on partnerships that do not follow its interests. "If you criticize FIFA they threaten to expel you from competition. This is also corruption”.

LaLiga’s President listed a series of proposals to boost this change as financial audits and management, transparent procedures around acquisitions, external committees, a greater presence of clubs and leagues, and a term limits to a maximum eight years.
Jerome Champagne, FIFA executive and former international adviser, supported the view of Tebas: "We need more people like Javier Tebas at FIFA, speaking on behalf of the people on the ground." Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the United Nations, also called for "a change of the whole system of FIFA and greater transparency".

In the subsequent press conference, the president of LaLiga reemphasized the need to "revolutionize the system, both control as the election. If in the world of business, large companies have external control systems to guarantee its shareholders, the most important sporting institution as is FIFA, must have external controls. "How can we think that those inside will change? Those who think so have to go to a psychologist." Tebas concluded that football is in a very critical situation until the election of new president in February.

On the amendment of dates of the World Cup Qatar 2022, Javier Tebas recalled the complaint made by LaLiga to the CAS and FIFA and said it was "not really a health problem for the players, because the organizers ensured that all stadiums and training camps would have air-conditioned ". On this issue, the president of LaLiga explained that "the change to November is very damaging to European leagues" and said that "those responsible from FIFA that decided to change are not familiar with the football industry". Finally on this subject he added that "if in the end it is shown that the elections were not clean, there is only one solution, which is to repeat the process. If this is not done, the regeneration of the FIFA would not have started".

Before the reporters, Javier Tebas also explained the evolution of the management bosses of Spanish football since his arrival: "We have much work to do, we are in an internal revolution. We have not finished with the economic control and now we are facing a major audiovisual scene" and added that "many challenges remain in LaLiga, one of the most important competitions in the world”.

Asked about the Bundesliga he answered that "in economic terms is the best league in the world, is an objective fact. Their debt data are the best in the world. It has a financial excellence," he said. "In Spain, during the last three years we've made the effort of economic control of clubs. If we had not made that decision, the Spanish football had broken, no big clubs but the rest," he said.

Finally, Javier Tebas ruled on the last Catalan regional elections and again noted that is inconceivable a "Spain without Catalonia" and therefore "the Catalan clubs also out of the league". "I think that the independence process will not continue. If it that hypothesis really would happen, the Spanish law does not allow clubs that are not from Spain playing in Spain, or what would remain of Spain".

Camp Beckenbauer

Camp Beckenbauer is an exceptional independent forum to discuss current issues in the world of sport. The most influential global sports personalities, business, media and politics share their vision in this internatío al summit to shape the future of the world of sport.
Among the participants of this edition are included names such as Thomas Bach (International Olympic Committee), Andrea Agnelli (president of Juventus), Nic Coward (former secretary general of the Premier League), Umberto Gandini (director of AC Milan), Mika Häkkinen (former F1 world champion), Herbert Hainer (Adidas CEO), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (FC Bayern Munich CEO) and Bernie Ecclestone.