Offences and sanctions

What to focus on while you read

FIFA Code of Ethics — substantive breaches and how sanctions are determined

Substantive FCE offences (bribery, abuse of position, discrimination, forgery, betting involvement, and related breaches) sit in a different band from duties and procedure. The Ethics Committee determines sanctions using the Code’s basis and aggravating rules (including recidivism).

Key points

• Identify the offence elements first (conduct + protected interest), then map to available sanctions.
• Abuse of position, forgery/falsification, and integrity-related offences are frequent exam patterns.
• When imposing a sanction, the Ethics Committee considers all relevant factors; recidivism can aggravate.
• Do not confuse FCE offences with Disciplinary Code match-manipulation or FFAR representation breaches.

Exam traps

• Applying FDC match-misconduct floors to an Ethics Code bribery/abuse scenario.
• Treating procedure articles (Arts 30–59) as the substantive offence itself.
• Ignoring recidivism / aggravating factors when the stem highlights a prior ethics finding.

Unit outline

1. Article 17

2. Article 18

3. Article 19

4. Article 20

5. Article 21

6. Article 22

7. Article 23

8. Article 24

9. Article 25

10. Article 26

11. Article 27

12. Article 28

13. Article 29