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It will be recalled that on Tuesday Aušrinė Armonaitė, Virgilijus Alekna, Vytautas Bakas, Arvydas Anušauskas, Laurynas Kasčiūnas, Sergejus Jovaiša and Andrius Kupčinskas signed a project in which they asked the Government to act and apply to UEFA and FIFA for the activities of UEFA LFF.
The main problems mentioned by the members of the Seimas are the lack of publicity of the LFF, especially in relation to the use of funds, and “the fight between people linked to certain criminal groups, people linked to other criminal groups and the participation of these people in the management of the organization “. The last point probably refers to the vice president of the LFF, Arūnas Pukelis, who wears a sling with him, holding in his hands the greatest levers of power of the football federation.
Seven members of Seimas urge the government to engage in intensive dialogue with the governing bodies of international football associations (UEFA, FIFA) to ensure that the heads of the Lithuanian Football Federation are in the hands of people of impeccable reputations.
However, two days later, the LFF issued a report stating that the draft resolution was spreading false information and degrading the LFF’s business reputation.
The LFF was not satisfied with the following four statements of the resolution:
one. “<...> In recent years there has been an active intervention of the criminal world in the management of this federation;
two. “<...> However, the situation in recent years, in which there is a constant struggle in the organization’s elections between people linked to certain criminal groups, people linked to other criminal groups and the participation of these people in the governance of the organization, it threatens its transparent, open and democratic governance; <...>“;
3. “<...> The participation of people of doubtful reputation in this educational process constitutes a threat to elements of the value system of children and youth. <...>;
4. “<...> The biggest transparency problems in the LFF stemmed from the influence of the criminal world on football and the management of a closed and non-transparent structure. Decisions made by the LFF that are relevant to football society are not public. The federation does not publish annual budget estimates and this raises doubts about the purposes for which the funds received will be used. <...>“.
The LFF also draws the attention of Seimas members to the fact that:
1. In accordance with article 7, paragraph 2, of the LFF Statutes, only persons of good repute may be President of the LFF, members of the Executive Committee and Secretary General. A person is not considered to have an impeccable reputation if they have been convicted of a serious or very serious crime, whether or not the conviction ceased to exist, nor has they been convicted of another crime until the sentence has ceased. In accordance with article 56 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. Paragraph 2 can become a member of the Seimas by persons who have served a sentence in accordance with a court ruling, and according to the definition of impeccable reputation provided in the Law on Elections to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, a person has an impeccable reputation. There are no persons in the governing bodies of the LFF who do not meet the good reputation requirement set out in the statutes of the LFF, UEFA and FIFA.
2. Therefore, the text of the draft resolution of the Group of members of the Seimas, which urges the Government of the Republic of Lithuania to intervene in the activities of the LFF, violates articles 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and 14 of the Law on Associations of the Republic of Lithuania. Therefore, such Resolution cannot be submitted to the Seimas for its consideration or vote.
3. The statement in the draft resolution that „<...> The biggest transparency problems in the LFF stemmed from the influence of the criminal world in football and the management of a closed and non-transparent structure. Decisions made by the LFF that are relevant to football society are not public. The federation does not publish annual budget estimates and this raises doubts about the purposes for which the funds received will be used. <...>“. First, we draw the attention of the members of the Seimas to the fact that the data of the financial statements and annual budgets of the LFF are sent to the highest governing body of the LFF, the LFF Conference, where the votes of the members they are approved and made public in the database of the State Companies Registry Center.
4. Furthermore, in accordance with the wishes of the LFF members, August 1 The LFF Conference was broadcast in real time on the video channel of the LFF website and has been and can be viewed by all interested persons. Second, the LFF Lithuanian football development projects are funded by FIFA and UEFA. The LFF provides detailed reports to FIFA and UEFA on the use of allocated funds. The LFF has not received comments on the lack of transparency or inefficiency in the use of the allocated funds. The financial activities of LFF are audited annually by an independent auditor approved by the LFF Conference.
5. All information on LFF’s activities and the financial statements of these activities is also publicly available on the LFF website.
6. We remind the esteemed members of the Seimas of the provisions of the laws adopted by them. Article 14 of the Law on Associations of the Republic of Lithuania establishes guarantees for the activities of the association, which stipulates that state and municipal institutions and officials are prohibited from interfering in the activities of the association and its internal affairs in cases and procedures not provided by law. We hope that the laws should be observed not only by the citizens, but also by the members of the Seimas who have adopted them.
7. Article 3 of the LFF Bylaws. 1 d. the LFF is neutral on political and religious matters. Article 3 of the FIFA Statutes Paragraph 1 states that FIFA is neutral in political and religious matters.
8. The European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “ECHR”) has emphasized in its jurisprudence that the state of democracy in a given State can be assessed based on the way in which the authorities guarantee freedom of association in legislation national and in practice (judgment of February 17, 2004). Gorzelik and Others v. Poland, petition 44158/98, paragraph 88). The freedom of association guaranteed by article 11 of the Convention includes the right to form an association (Gorzelik et al. V. Poland, § 88); The possibility of establishing a legal entity to act collectively in the common interest is one of the most important aspects of freedom of association, without which this right would lose all meaning (judgment of April 8, 2014 in Magyar Keresztény Mennonita Egyház et al. Hungary, petitions 70945/11, 23611/12, 26998/12, 41150/12, 41155/12, 41463/12, 41553/12, 54977/12 and 56581/12, paragraph 78).
9. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania has held that – the association must be independent and free from unreasonable interference from the State or other external entities; An association is not independent when the decisions related to its specific activities and actions are taken by someone other than the members of the association or the body to which the members of the association have delegated it (Resolution No. KT21-N10 / 2019 of July 11, 2019, cases No. 9/2018).
10. Since the LFF statutes oblige the LFF to act politically neutral, the LFF does not and cannot participate in the Seimas electoral campaign, therefore it does not comment in detail on the draft resolutions that mislead the Seimas and Lithuanian society as a whole. or they are not interested at all in the activities of the LFF but present the Seimas draft Resolution, or they are misled by interested persons or they act dishonestly during the Seimas election campaign to get the attention of their voters in such a way unethical.
11. In accordance with Article 4 of the Law on Approval, Entry into Force and Application of the Code of Conduct for State Politicians of the Republic of Lithuania (Principles of Conduct of State Politicians), public politicians must respect human beings humans and the State in public life. confidence in the state and its institutions increases. We do not believe that the dissemination of false information through the Seimas draft Resolution is in line with the requirements of the Code of Conduct for State Politicians.
“If said Seimas draft resolution was submitted for consideration at the Seimas session, please allow the LFF heads to speak about the dissemination of false information provided in the text of the draft resolution,” writes LFF.
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