PORT LOUIS, Mauritius — FIFA's executive committee met Tuesday in a prelude to an annual Congress later this week which is considered a landmark moment for football's governing body to complete its reform process and put behind it two years of scandals. FIFA president Sepp Blatter will report on the modernizing reforms already undertaken last year. The 209 member countries will then vote on more proposed changes at the two-day Congress, which opens Thursday on the tropical Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. “I look forward to further important decisions being passed at the Congress in 2013 to complete the reform process and bring FIFA up to the highest standards of good governance, as befits an organization such as ours,” Blatter wrote in his introduction to the Congress agenda. The president also said in response to criticism that FIFA wasn't taking the reform process seriously or wholeheartedly: “It'd be unfair to say we are not doing well.” In one step already accepted, the Congress will elect a first permanent female member of the executive committee from four candidates, while the 77-year-old Blatter could indicate an intention to stand for another four-year term as leader beyond 2015 despite pledging when re-elected in 2011 that this would be his last. The Swiss has been in charge of FIFA since 1998, and could rally the Congress to back him to see through the reform process, maybe gaining the beginnings of momentum in Mauritius to stand again for re-election in two years' time and until 2019, when he will turn 83. Other matters on the sidelines of the Congress will be the question of sterner punishments for racism in football after the recent re-emergence of the problem in Italy and the game's ongoing battle with match-fixing, both of which are “high on the agenda,” Blatter said. Brazil's preparations for the 2014 World Cup will be examined at both the executive committee and the Congress. Setbacks at some of the showpiece stadiums will prompt closer scrutiny, notably the arena in Sao Paolo which was scheduled to open the tournament in a year's time and may now miss its completion deadline. FIFA also will make final plans for next month's World Cup warm-up event in Brazil, the Confederations Cup. On Monday, a small part of the roof collapsed at one of the stadiums set to host matches in that event. The body has made reforms to its ethics committee and introduced a new code of behavior and vetting procedures since the scandal-ravaged year and Congress in 2011. Some of the proposals to be voted on in Mauritius include age and term limits for FIFA places, including the presidency, while FIFA's new watchdog Audit and Compliance Committee also met on Monday and will report after its first year of work. — AP
