CSA president Victor Montagliani to represent CONCACAF on FIFA reform committee

It seems that the corruption scandal that's cast a dark shadow over world soccer is leading to a larger role for Canada within FIFA. Back in May, Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani was named to the committee to oversee CONCACAF (the regional federation that oversees North American, Central American and Caribbean soccer) reform, and now he's taking on a bigger global task. The CSA announced Tuesday that Montagliani will represent CONCACAF on the new "2016 FIFA Reform Committee":

It's interesting to see CONCACAF tab Montagliani here, as Canada's far from the most powerful or influential country within the federation. That may be part of the rationale behind sending him, though; many of the smaller countries may not have been happy if someone like U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati was chosen. Montagliani brings a decent track record, too: he's been with the CSA since 2005, first as vice president and then as president since 2012, and he's helped to organize the hosting large FIFA events such as the 2007 U-20 World Cup and this year's Women's World Cup. He also hasn't been named in any of the information emerging from this scandal yet, which is important; this reform committee will have to be above reproach in order to have any hope of producing a meaningful change.

Having a representative on this committee could be a sign of Canada's growing importance in world soccer. Canada's now hosted two very successful FIFA tournaments that have set attendance records and generally gone well, and Montagliani's increased role within CONCACAF in recent months is also promising. The CSA has also gotten its own house largely in order in recent years (except for provincial reps who still propose insane demands like withdrawing from FIFA), and that helps too; we're a long way from the "Sack The CSA" days. Who knows: if Canada keeps gaining roles on these FIFA committees, the proposed 2026 World Cup bid may become slightly less insane.

Montagliani and his colleagues will have an awful lot of work to do to clean up FIFA, though, and a big part of the problem is the organization's structure. FIFA's setup, where tiny countries have a lot of power (for example, Oceania had 11 votes in the presidential election to South America's 10), is perfect for corruption. Those small countries are often poor, and they receive substantial funding from FIFA to develop soccer there. That's not inherently bad, but recent months have suggested that much of that funding is often misdirected and misappropriated by officials, through bribes, kickbacks and just general thievery. The lucrative rights to televise soccer matches have also been cited as a key part of the corruption, as these rights are often transferred through third-party companies (such as Traffic USA, a key company mentioned in May's indictments) and often include kickbacks and bribes. Some of this possibly could be corrected with more extensive audits and oversight, but those may be a hard sell within FIFA, especially with president Sepp Blatter (a target of many corruption accusations, but no official charges yet) planning to stay on until 2016. Can FIFA be redeemed? We'll find out, but it certainly won't be an easy task for Montagliani and the other members of the committee.