The Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) has drafted new statutes that, among other things, will bar persons convicted of criminal offences from sitting on its Executive Committee.
According to LFF President Tomas Danilevičius, the Executive Committee has agreed on the final draft statutes at its meeting on Wednesday. The new statutes are expected to be approved at the LFF extraordinary conference on December 21.
“We had a considerable discussion on the issue of impeccable reputation, which UEFA and FIFA are proposing to include [into the statutes],” Danilevičius told a press conference on Thursday.
“After discussing this concept, we came to the conclusion that UEFA will turn to independent lawyers and ask them to give an opinion on whether this concept complies with all Lithuanian laws,” he added.
The federation has drafted the statutes together with FIFA and UEFA.
Luca Nicola, Head of National Associations Governance and Global Institutions at UEFA, said that these nuances are expected to be clarified with the lawyers before the LFF extraordinary conference in December so that the provision could be included in the statutes.
The current LFF statutes allow individuals convicted of minor or less severe crimes to be elected to its governing bodies, provided their convictions have expired. Four individuals with past convictions are currently sitting on the LFF Executive Committee.
The new statutes will include the requirement “not to have been found guilty of any criminal offence [and to] have an impeccable integrity record”, according to Nicola.
The LFF began to work on its new statutes after the Lithuanian parliament considered temporarily placing the federation under direct state management.
In recent years, the LFF has been criticised for poor sports results and for some of its officials’ alleged links to the criminal world.
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