New revelations: FIFA Executives named as ISL bribe-takers
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Sebahattin Devecioglu
Nov 30, 2010, 9:19:54 AM11/30/10
to Turkish Sports Economics
New revelations: FIFA Executives named as ISL bribe-takers
By Jens Weinreich-29 November 2010
ZÜRICH. Three days before the election of the hosts of the 2018 and
2022 football World Cups, new documents have appeared that bring heavy
charges against top FIFA officials.
At least three current members of the executive committee of
football’s world governing body have over the years collected millions
of dollars in bribes from the former sports marketing agency ISL /
ISMM: Ricardo Teixeira, President of Brazil's Football Federation
(CBF) and of the 2014 World Cup Organising Committee, Nicolas Léoz of
Paraguay, President of the South American Football Confederation
(CONMEBOL), and Issa Hayatou from Cameroon, President of the African
Football Confederation (CAF).
Regarding Teixiera and Léoz, other irregularities were already known,
but the name of Hayatou is new. All three will meet Thursday in Zurich
and take part in the voting on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
"Bribe receivers cast their votes" said the Zurich newspaper Tages-
Anzeiger in a headline today.
The former long-serving FIFA President Joao Havelange, once father-in-
law of Ricardo Teixeira, also appears on the list which covers the
years between 1989 and 1999 and a total of 175 payments worth
122,587,308.93 Swiss francs.
There is no doubt about the authenticity of the document that the
author and investigative reporter Andrew Jennings has uncovered for
the BBC programme Panorama (broadcast tonight Monday 29 November at
20.30 CET), for during the ISL court procedure in the spring of 2008
in the Swiss town of Zug, one of the judges, Marc Siegwart, spoke
smugly about bribes of 120 million Swiss francs in those years.
On top of that, the prosecutors in Zug had already documented another
18 million Swiss francs, which were paid by the ISL group from
1999-2001 to top sports officials. All in all 140 million Swiss francs
were paid out - and this is just the tip of the iceberg. For this
money, these top officials from various sports organisations, not only
FIFA, ensured orders worth billions for the ISL / ISMM: Sponsorship
contracts, marketing rights, TV rights. Most payments were funnelled
through front companies and foundations in many countries. The ISL
system of corruption was spelled out in a criminal proceeding against
six long-time ISL executives in the court of Zug in 2008.
Numerous cash payments were also part of the business; the bribe
couriers never had problems bringing bulging suitcases across the
border, for instance to pass money from Liechtenstein to Zurich.
One of the ISL-managers testified in court: "All these payments were
necessary to even get contracts and to make them [the sports
officials] stick to it." Another said: "It was like paying salaries.
Otherwise they would have stopped working immediately."
In June 2010, a deal between prosecutors in Zug and FIFA was settled.
FIFA paid 5.5 million Swiss francs to the Swiss Treasury – and the
investigation was discontinued. The names of the corrupt officials
were supposed to remain secret forever. Now some of these names have
become publicly known, as have the names of several companies and
foundations.
The biggest corruption scandal in the history of sport keeps spreading
and has now reached the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Besides
Havelange, doyen of the IOC, Hayatou is also an IOC member. Moreover,
according to the document, the Senegalese Lamine Diack also collected
money from the ISL. Diack, treated as a future president in his home
country, has been President of the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF) since 1999 and is through this capacity
an IOC member.
Top earner is the Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira, who, through front
companies, has received around 9.5 million dollars from the ISL since
1999. Between 1999 and 2001, he collected another 2.5 million dollars,
which has been known since 2008.
Teixeira's records are legend and included in investigation reports by
the Brazilian Parliament. But Teixeira enjoys double protection: at
home by politics, and in FIFA by President Joseph Blatter.
Only two weeks ago, the Brazilian magazine "Lance" revealed that
Teixeira as President of CBF and head of the 2014 World Cup Organising
Committee has signed contracts with himself. The World Cup is
organized by a company that belongs 99.9 percent to the CBF and 0.1
percent to Teixeira – the sharing of any World Cup profits is decided
by Teixeira alone, regardless of the distribution of shares.
The IOC and its so-called Ethics Committee have never paid much
attention to this issue or to how FIFA always pointed out that
receiving bribes in Switzerland between 1989 and 2001 was not illegal.
In fact, it still isn’t: However, a corruption network as the one seen
within the ISL Group, would now be covered by the law on unfair
competition and as such be punishable. But sports officials and their
billion-dollar corporations like FIFA and the IOC, which most often
reside in Switzerland, further enjoy the legal status of associations,
and are thus not covered by anti-corruption rules.
The receipt of payments, such as bribery in connection with the
awarding of the two FIFA World Cups this Thursday, seems from a legal
point of view to be internal affairs for FIFA. Two weeks ago, the FIFA
Ethics Committee suspended two executive members and four other
officials, who were revealed as corruptible after investigations made
by the Sunday Times.
As for the IOC doyen Joao Havelange, the document shows a payment of
1.5 million Swiss francs on 3 March 1997. This happened nine months
after the ISL group, together with Munich media entrepreneur Leo
Kirch, under scandalous circumstances had acquired the TV selling
rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups for 2.8 billion Swiss francs.
In 1997, under equally suspicious circumstances, the ISL also secured
the marketing of World Cup sponsorship rights worth just under a
billion Swiss francs.
Nicolas Léoz, President of CONMEBOL since 1986 and tied in closely
with Teixeira and Havelange, is said to have received 864.000 Swiss
francs in bribes - plus 211.625 Swiss francs which has been known for
a while. Compared to this, the bribes collected by IOC members Hayatou
and Diack were mere peanuts.
In 1995, Hayatou received 24.700 Swiss francs in cash. Diack received
three cash payments of 52.680 Swiss francs in total. Interestingly,
the bribe bagman of the ISL Group, its former chief executive, Jean-
Marie Weber, to this day works for Hayatou and Diack, that is, for the
African Football Federation (CAF), headed by Hayatou and for the world
governing body for Athletics (IAAF), headed by Lamine Diack.
More information, see
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11841783
By Jens Weinreich-29 November 2010
ZÜRICH. Three days before the election of the hosts of the 2018 and
2022 football World Cups, new documents have appeared that bring heavy
charges against top FIFA officials.
At least three current members of the executive committee of
football’s world governing body have over the years collected millions
of dollars in bribes from the former sports marketing agency ISL /
ISMM: Ricardo Teixeira, President of Brazil's Football Federation
(CBF) and of the 2014 World Cup Organising Committee, Nicolas Léoz of
Paraguay, President of the South American Football Confederation
(CONMEBOL), and Issa Hayatou from Cameroon, President of the African
Football Confederation (CAF).
Regarding Teixiera and Léoz, other irregularities were already known,
but the name of Hayatou is new. All three will meet Thursday in Zurich
and take part in the voting on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
"Bribe receivers cast their votes" said the Zurich newspaper Tages-
Anzeiger in a headline today.
The former long-serving FIFA President Joao Havelange, once father-in-
law of Ricardo Teixeira, also appears on the list which covers the
years between 1989 and 1999 and a total of 175 payments worth
122,587,308.93 Swiss francs.
There is no doubt about the authenticity of the document that the
author and investigative reporter Andrew Jennings has uncovered for
the BBC programme Panorama (broadcast tonight Monday 29 November at
20.30 CET), for during the ISL court procedure in the spring of 2008
in the Swiss town of Zug, one of the judges, Marc Siegwart, spoke
smugly about bribes of 120 million Swiss francs in those years.
On top of that, the prosecutors in Zug had already documented another
18 million Swiss francs, which were paid by the ISL group from
1999-2001 to top sports officials. All in all 140 million Swiss francs
were paid out - and this is just the tip of the iceberg. For this
money, these top officials from various sports organisations, not only
FIFA, ensured orders worth billions for the ISL / ISMM: Sponsorship
contracts, marketing rights, TV rights. Most payments were funnelled
through front companies and foundations in many countries. The ISL
system of corruption was spelled out in a criminal proceeding against
six long-time ISL executives in the court of Zug in 2008.
Numerous cash payments were also part of the business; the bribe
couriers never had problems bringing bulging suitcases across the
border, for instance to pass money from Liechtenstein to Zurich.
One of the ISL-managers testified in court: "All these payments were
necessary to even get contracts and to make them [the sports
officials] stick to it." Another said: "It was like paying salaries.
Otherwise they would have stopped working immediately."
In June 2010, a deal between prosecutors in Zug and FIFA was settled.
FIFA paid 5.5 million Swiss francs to the Swiss Treasury – and the
investigation was discontinued. The names of the corrupt officials
were supposed to remain secret forever. Now some of these names have
become publicly known, as have the names of several companies and
foundations.
The biggest corruption scandal in the history of sport keeps spreading
and has now reached the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Besides
Havelange, doyen of the IOC, Hayatou is also an IOC member. Moreover,
according to the document, the Senegalese Lamine Diack also collected
money from the ISL. Diack, treated as a future president in his home
country, has been President of the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF) since 1999 and is through this capacity
an IOC member.
Top earner is the Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira, who, through front
companies, has received around 9.5 million dollars from the ISL since
1999. Between 1999 and 2001, he collected another 2.5 million dollars,
which has been known since 2008.
Teixeira's records are legend and included in investigation reports by
the Brazilian Parliament. But Teixeira enjoys double protection: at
home by politics, and in FIFA by President Joseph Blatter.
Only two weeks ago, the Brazilian magazine "Lance" revealed that
Teixeira as President of CBF and head of the 2014 World Cup Organising
Committee has signed contracts with himself. The World Cup is
organized by a company that belongs 99.9 percent to the CBF and 0.1
percent to Teixeira – the sharing of any World Cup profits is decided
by Teixeira alone, regardless of the distribution of shares.
The IOC and its so-called Ethics Committee have never paid much
attention to this issue or to how FIFA always pointed out that
receiving bribes in Switzerland between 1989 and 2001 was not illegal.
In fact, it still isn’t: However, a corruption network as the one seen
within the ISL Group, would now be covered by the law on unfair
competition and as such be punishable. But sports officials and their
billion-dollar corporations like FIFA and the IOC, which most often
reside in Switzerland, further enjoy the legal status of associations,
and are thus not covered by anti-corruption rules.
The receipt of payments, such as bribery in connection with the
awarding of the two FIFA World Cups this Thursday, seems from a legal
point of view to be internal affairs for FIFA. Two weeks ago, the FIFA
Ethics Committee suspended two executive members and four other
officials, who were revealed as corruptible after investigations made
by the Sunday Times.
As for the IOC doyen Joao Havelange, the document shows a payment of
1.5 million Swiss francs on 3 March 1997. This happened nine months
after the ISL group, together with Munich media entrepreneur Leo
Kirch, under scandalous circumstances had acquired the TV selling
rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups for 2.8 billion Swiss francs.
In 1997, under equally suspicious circumstances, the ISL also secured
the marketing of World Cup sponsorship rights worth just under a
billion Swiss francs.
Nicolas Léoz, President of CONMEBOL since 1986 and tied in closely
with Teixeira and Havelange, is said to have received 864.000 Swiss
francs in bribes - plus 211.625 Swiss francs which has been known for
a while. Compared to this, the bribes collected by IOC members Hayatou
and Diack were mere peanuts.
In 1995, Hayatou received 24.700 Swiss francs in cash. Diack received
three cash payments of 52.680 Swiss francs in total. Interestingly,
the bribe bagman of the ISL Group, its former chief executive, Jean-
Marie Weber, to this day works for Hayatou and Diack, that is, for the
African Football Federation (CAF), headed by Hayatou and for the world
governing body for Athletics (IAAF), headed by Lamine Diack.
More information, see
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11841783
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