The FIFA Thread | Blatter hires opera singer and Henry Kissinger to reform FIFA

Red Defence

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FIFA Wouldn't Meet With Whistleblower Who Says Qatar Bought The 2022 World Cup

Dashiell Bennett | Jun. 7, 2011, 8:45 AM

A whistleblower claims that Qatar paid $3 million in bribes to help secure the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but soccer's governing body would not meet the person because they made unreasonable demands.

The person basically wanted a "witness protection" program that would protect them from lawsuits and criminal charges, while keeping the information and their identity secret.

FIFA considered the demands unreasonable.

The whistleblower eventually went to the Sunday Times newspaper, which reported that FIFA Vice President Issa Hayatou and Ivory Coast official Jacques Anouma were each given $1.5 million to vote for Qatar

They both deny the charges.

Read more: FIFA Wouldn't Meet With Whistleblower Who Says Qatar Bought The 2022 World Cup
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Interesesting if true. FIFA were already aware of the Qatar bribery alegations before us. Knock his "sour grapes" theory a bit doesn't it.
 

SteveJ

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Paul Kelso from the Telegraph:

Worth remembering Warner was under significant political pressure in Trinidad with police requesting details of Fifa investigation.
 

paulthesinger

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Unbelievable:
"As a consequence of Mr Warner's resignation, all ethics committee procedures against him have been closed and the presumption of innocence is maintained," said a Fifa statement.
 

SteveJ

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Warner told Bloomberg:

''It's not unusual for such things to happen and gifts have been around throughout the history of FIFA. What's happening now for me is hypocrisy.

''I have lost my enthusiasm to continue. The general secretary that I had employed, who worked with me for 21 years, with the assistance of elements of FIFA has sought to undermine me in ways that are unimaginable.

''This is giving the impression that FIFA is sanitising itself. I've been hung out to dry continually and I'm not prepared to take that.''
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Sir Matt

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T IS the only country to have played in the final stages of every football World Cup and it has won it five times, more than anybody else. So Brazil feels proprietorial about the tournament, which it is to host in 2014. Another victory, good football and a party atmosphere would satisfy the demanding home fans, as well as many of the 600,000 expected from abroad. But for Brazil’s government the run-up to the tournament is not going well.

It is becoming clear that promised improvements to the country’s creaking transport systems are unlikely to amount to much. Of 49 planned urban-transport schemes in the host cities, work has started on just nine. Airport upgrades are running behind schedule too, and more than half are just temporary fixes. The government is trying to damp down expectations. In an interview with Carta Capital, a weekly magazine, Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, said that the urban-transport improvements were not essential for the tournament’s success. Miriam Belchior, the planning minister, suggested that the government would declare holidays on match days to avoid traffic jams.

Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, world football’s governing body, has written to Ms Rousseff expressing concern. But Ms Rousseff has cause to worry about FIFA. Just when she is doing her best to clean up the country’s politics—she has sacked four ministers over corruption claims—the World Cup is being run by one of football’s most tarnished figures. And claims of sleaze keep on coming.

Ricardo Teixeira, who is president of the local World Cup organising committee and a member of FIFA’s executive committee, has been chairman of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) since 1989. He is a protégé of João Havelange, who ran FIFA for almost a quarter-century until 1998. Mr Teixeira has been fighting accusations of graft for years. In 2001 investigations by Brazil’s Congress into corruption in football found irregularities in a deal arranged by Mr Teixeira under which Nike, an American sportswear firm, sponsored the national team. The congressional committee of inquiry passed on to the public prosecutor some 13 charges against him, including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion. All were subsequently dropped. (Nike says the contract was “fully legal in essence and spirit”.)

“Panorama”, a BBC television programme, has accused Mr Teixeira and Mr Havelange of taking bribes in the 1990s related to marketing rights for games. Earlier this year Lord (David) Triesman, the man who launched England’s failed bid to host the World Cup in 2018, said that Mr Teixeira had asked for money in return for his vote.

In an interview in Piauí, a Brazilian monthly, Mr Teixeira denied the BBC’s claims. He said the English were “pissed off because they lost” and that he would have his revenge on the BBC: as long as he is at the CBF and FIFA, “they won’t get past the door.” He boasted that in 2014 he would do “the most slippery, unthinkable, Machiavellian things [such as] denying press credentials, barring access, changing game schedules.” The sports minister, Orlando Silva, had to promise that all journalists would be fairly treated and allowed to do their work.

A FIFA investigation cleared Mr Teixeira of Lord Triesman’s allegations. Mr Havelange has not responded to the BBC’s allegations. But the International Olympic Committee, of which Mr Havelange is a member and which has stricter ethical standards than FIFA, is investigating them. This week a Brazilian prosecutor declared that he will order police to look into whether Mr Teixeira was guilty of money laundering and tax crimes.

Marketing games

Another brewing scandal concerns a friendly game between Brazil and Portugal in Brasília in November 2008. Associates of Mr Teixeira received millions from the event. Around the same time they appear to have signed contracts committing them to pay large sums to Mr Teixeira for purposes that remain obscure. Six months before the match Sandro Rosell, who is now the president of Barcelona Football Club, the European champions, became a director of Ailanto, a sports-marketing firm in Rio de Janeiro set up shortly beforehand.

Mr Rosell has been doing business with Mr Teixeira for years: he moved to Brazil as Nike’s director of sports marketing in 1999 to manage the company’s relationship with the CBF. A week before the Brasília match, the government of the Federal District signed a contract to pay Ailanto 9m reais ($4m at the time) for the marketing rights and for other loosely defined services, including arranging transport and accommodation for both teams’ players. (The then governor of the Federal District, José Roberto Arruda, was later imprisoned and charged by the Federal Police over corruption relating to other matters.)

That deal is now being investigated for padding and corruption. The public prosecutor’s office in Brasília says that receipted expenditure relating to the game was only around 1m reais—and that in any case the Football Federation of Brasília (FBF), an affiliate of the CBF, had paid. It also says that, although the Federal District government bought the rights to the game, the money from ticket sales went to the FBF. Brasília’s police force has searched Ailanto’s premises in Rio de Janeiro, seizing documents.

Alongside these deals run three others whose purposes are not immediately obvious. The Economist has copies of what appear to be the contracts for all three. One dated March 2009 commits Vanessa Precht, a Brazilian who formerly worked at Barcelona FC and who was Mr Rosell’s partner in Ailanto, to leasing a farm in the state of Rio de Janeiro from Mr Teixeira for 10,000 reais a month for five years. Rede Record, a Brazilian television network, visited the farm in June and could find nobody who had heard of Ms Precht. Two Brazilian congressmen have called for an investigation to establish whether the deal was a way for Ms Precht to return to Mr Teixeira some of the money Ailanto earned from the Brazil-Portugal friendly.

The other two contracts were signed separately in July 2008 by Mr Teixeira and Mr Rosell with Cláudio Honigman, a financier who is a partner of Mr Rosell’s in a different Brazilian sports-marketing company, Brasil 100% Marketing. Mr Honigman undertook to pay each man 22.5m reais to buy back options on 10% of the shares in Alpes Corretora, a São Paulo brokerage, which the contracts state he had previously sold to them. A spokesman for Alpes Corretora has told The Economist that Mr Honigman never had any interest in any shares in the company. Mr Rosell and Mr Teixeira declined to comment for this article. Mr Honigman’s lawyer says that he has been unable to contact him. Ms Precht did not respond to our request for an interview.

The panjandrums of international football have traditionally been untouchable: FIFA is a law unto itself. Mr Teixeira has kept his position at the top of Brazilian football despite previous corruption claims. But this time may be different.

FIFA’s lawyers are trying to block the publication of a report by the public prosecutor in the Swiss canton of Zug on a criminal investigation into payments received by senior FIFA officials in the 1990s. The officials’ defence was that taking commissions was not illegal under Swiss law at the time. But since the money was intended for FIFA, the prosecutor investigated the individuals pocketing it for criminal mismanagement and misappropriation. The investigation was dropped after two officials agreed to pay 5.5m Swiss francs ($6.2m) to the canton, which passed the money to FIFA and charities. Both denied criminal wrongdoing.

The report was shelved at the request of the officials’ lawyers. So their identities have not been disclosed, though the lawyer for one of them said that his client is an old man in poor health who no longer has an official role. That appears to describe Mr Havelange, who is 95 and is FIFA’s honorary president. The Zug high court is to decide in the next few weeks on petitions by journalists for the release of the report. The Economist contacted Mr Havelange’s office in Rio de Janeiro regarding these matters, but he declined to speak to us.

Inside Brazil, too, the ground is shifting under Mr Teixeira. Ms Rousseff has appointed Pelé, Brazil’s most famous footballer, as the government’s honorary World Cup ambassador and is trying to freeze Mr Teixeira out. The organising committee left Pelé off the guest list for the World Cup draw in July. Ms Rousseff brought him along anyway, and also made much of him at a ceremony on September 16th marking 1,000 days till kick-off. “With all due respect to FIFA and the CBF,” Ms Rousseff told Carta Capital, “the face of [the tournament] abroad will be Pelé.”

Football in Brazil: Own goals from Senhor Futebol | The Economist
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FIFA...what an organization. I suppose FIFA and the Brazil WC authorities will seek to prevent the Economist from covering the World Cup in 2014. :lol:
 

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Thanks for the Economist article Sir Matt. Its really nothing I didn't already know, I've pretty much read every other article cited there. But I like seeing a respected publication like The Economist putting this out there.

ESPN over here do a good job of keeping on top of these things, along with a newspaper they're associated to. But its not widely known because the media group which runs the largest newspaper, TV channel and website in Brazil are Teixeira ''allies".

I despise Teixeira, Havelange, Rossell and the shady Honnigan figure. I wish they all got sent to jail for a really long time (or just died really painful deaths, I hate them that much), but I really don't see it happenning. For all the issues with the FA over in England, its got nothing on how amateurishly football is run on this continent as a whole, and how brutally corrupt it is.
 

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Jack Warner claims he bought World Cup rights for $1 | Football | The Guardian

Jack Warner claims he bought World Cup rights for $1

• Five-tournament deal cost him nominal sum
• Warner claims he helped Sepp Blatter win Fifa election

Jack Warner, the former Fifa vice-president, has claimed that he acquired the World Cup television rights for Trinidad & Tobago for as little as $1 in 1998 after helping Sepp Blatter get elected as president of football's world governing body, according to reports.

Warner, who resigned from Fifa in June when he was being investigated for alleged bribery by the organisation, claimed he acquired the rights via a Mexican company for the 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 editions, AP reported last night.

Warner also claimed that he refused to endorse Blatter in last June's presidential election despite being offered the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, again for a nominal fee. He further alleged that he was offered other "inducements" to develop football in the Caribbean. Warner claims he used the revenue from selling on the rights to develop football in the Caribbean, which is part of Concacaf, of which he was president before he and another Fifa vice-president, Mohamed bin Hamman, resigned.

Each was accused of giving Caribbean officials $40,000 in cash to gain support for Bin Hammam's presidential campaign against Blatter last summer. Warner denied any wrongdoing and said then that he'd been "hung out to dry" following 30 years at Fifa.

According to Bloomberg, the governing body said in an email that "it will look into" Warner's comments, while its spokesman Brian Alexander declined to make any immediate response.

Fifa normally sells World Cup TV rights directly to broadcasters or sub-contracts companies to negotiate sales.

In September the BBC reported that Fifa rescinded an agreement with International Media Content Ltd's SportsMax cable channel to broadcast the 2014 World Cup in the Caribbean after "only recently" becoming aware that a company owned by Warner negotiated the sale on behalf of the regional soccer association.
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FOR THE GOOD OF THE GAME
 

Forevergiggs

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Blatter: English football is 'run by idiots'

A new book by Lord Sebastian Coe has revealed that FIFA president Sepp Blatter thought English football was being 'run by idiots' prior to the failed 2018 World Cup bid.

Coe was an important part of England's bid process which only garnered two official votes and he admits that the chances of successfully hosting the tournament became apparent after the first organising committee meeting, telling fellow executive Keith Mills that FIFA delegates simply weren't interested.

"It's got the smell of death about it," Coe wrote. "I had been truly shocked by the vituperative nature of the meeting I had just witnessed. There was thinly disguised contempt around the table."

The most alarming revelation in the book is that Blatter always wanted Russia to earn hosting rights, although Coe insists it is not because the president hates England but because he detests the structure of English football.

"He doesn't [hate England]. He's Swiss and like a lot of Swiss, he's rather fond of England," Coe said. "He likes the political stability, he likes the pomp and tradition. What he always has a problem with is the English game. And from his perspective, it is not hard to understand.

"As president of the international federation he sees the unwillingness of English clubs to release players for international duty. He sees the purchasing power of the English game - big-name clubs buying up players from all over the world.

"And he sees a national federation that, at the time of the bid, had no chairman and no chief executive.

"Blatter once said to me: 'Your game is run by idiots, it's not run by bright people'...I was obviously disappointed, very disappointed."

Coe also withdrew previous claims that media scrutiny of FIFA was to blame for the failed bid, acknowledging that the "awful dysfunctionality of the English game, its personalities and politics" were more influential in the final decision.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...:-english-football-is-'run-by-idiots'?cc=4716

********
 

99 red balloons

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This is brilliant fun - 20 minutes now it's been going and they're still there...incredible nobody has pulled them down yet!!

Maybe he has taken some truth pills...
 

Sir Matt

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...fifa-reduce-world-cup-stadiums-bofa-says.html

Qatar Is in Talks to Reduce World Cup Stadiums, BofA Says

Qatar may reduce the number of stadiums it builds for the 2022 soccer World Cup as costs increase, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The Middle Eastern country is negotiating with FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, to cut the number of venues to eight or nine from the 12 originally planned, the U.S. bank said in a note to investors following meetings with the Qatar 2022 organizing committee.

“We are fully committed to delivering on the commitments we made to FIFA,” Yasir Al Jamal, technical director of the organizing committee, said in a statement. “The requirement is a minimum of eight and a maximum of 12 stadiums. We are currently working on delivering our first five stadiums,” he said.

Qatar, holder of the world’s third-largest natural-gas reserves, agreed to spend as much as $65 billion on infrastructure to host the world’s most-watched sporting event. The plan includes building stadiums equipped with solar-powered air conditioning, more than doubling hotel and apartment rooms and constructing a $25 billion rail and metro network.

Costs are likely to exceed the bank’s initial estimate of $95 billion, Alberto Ades, head of emerging-market fixed-income strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said in the note.

“The process of selecting the final proposed line-up of host venues is in process,” FIFA said in an e-mail. Qatar will submit a list of many as 12 stadiums to the FIFA executive committee for approval, the sports organization said.

Summer Heat

Qatar’s selection as World Cup host has prompted speculation that the tournament could be moved to winter from summer to avoid temperatures that reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). Qatari officials are “indifferent to holding the event in the summer or winter,” Ades wrote.
Building the infrastructure will have to be carefully phased to avoid “overheating,” he said.

Qatar beat out the U.S., Japan and Australia three years ago for the rights to the World Cup in a vote by executives of FIFA awarding the 2018 and 2022 events. The organization said it would no longer select the hosts for more than one tournament at a time because of concerns about collusion between bidders and allegations of vote-selling by committee members. Russia was selected to host the 2018 tournament.

“We are in constant communication with FIFA on to how best fulfill our bid commitments and implement our unique, compact hosting concept for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar,” Al Jamal said.

Qatar’s development authorities expect medium-term economic growth of 5 percent “with flattish hydrocarbon sector growth,” Ades wrote. Construction could peak around 2015 and 2016 and, while the population is likely to grow, issues related to short- term labor contracts, lack of residency options for foreign workers and the country’s sponsorship system “could pose headwinds post-World Cup.”
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Despite no one being interested. :mad:
 

Sir Matt

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http://www.smh.com.au/sport/fifa-official-stole-australian-cash-20130422-2ias5.html

FIFA official 'stole' Australian cash

Former top FIFA official Jack Warner allegedly stole a $462,000 donation the Football Federation of Australia gave to his Caribbean football organisation in 2010, at a time when the FFA was lobbying Mr Warner to back its bid to host the world cup.

The finding that Mr Warner stole the money - made over the weekend by an integrity panel headed by several former judges - raises fresh questions about the FFA's decision to give lucrative grants in 2010 to soccer organisations headed by influential FIFA officials previously accused of corruption.

The existence of the $462,000 donation - and its alleged theft - has never been reported publicly in Australia, including in the FFA and government inquiries into Australia's failed $45 million bid.

Mr Warner resigned as Trinidad and Tobago's minister of security on Sunday, and denied any wrongdoing.

The FFA has long maintained its spending in the lead-up to the Cup was done with appropriate due diligence, despite concerns raised by its former corporate affairs manager Bonita Mersiades about the risks of giving "international development" grants to corruption-riddled overseas football bodies.

When the FFA gave the $462,000 stadium development donation to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), it was headed by Mr Warner, who had previously been accused of corruption.

In 2010, Fairfax Media revealed that the FFA gave a pearl necklace to the wives of top FIFA officials, including Mr Warner, spent tens of thousands of dollars flying a junior Caribbean football team to a match and paid more than $1 million to consultant Peter Hargitay, who claimed privately to be able to deliver Mr Warner's vote to the FFA.

The inquiry by the CONCACAF integrity committee found that in 2010, the FFA deposited $462,200 in a Caribbean bank account after meeting with Mr Warner and agreeing to donate to the development of a stadium in Trinidad and Tobago. The inquiry said the account was controlled by Mr Warner, who appears to have later pocketed the FFA's funds.

''The funds were paid to CONCACAF by FFA in the form of a check … to CONCACAF which was deposited into a bank account maintained at Republic National Bank in Trinidad and Tobago, an account in which, earlier that year, Warner had deposited personal reimbursement funds from CONCACAF,'' the inquiry found.

"Given the history of Warner's conduct, his failure to report this payment as income, and the general lack of accountability of funds sent to CONCACAF operations in Trinidad and Tobago, the committee concludes that Warner misappropriated these funds."

The inquiry was headed by former US federal court judge Ricardo Urbina and former chief justice of the Barbados Sir David Simmons.

The FFA's World Cup bid campaign, which secured only a single vote from the 24-member FIFA executive, was overseen by Ben Buckley, who has since left the FFA.

The FFA's head of corporate affairs, Kyle Patterson, said the FFA assisted the investigation into Mr Warner's handling of money and had on Monday written to CONCACAF to explore what steps it would take next.

"This funding related to the mandatory FIFA World Cup bidding criteria. FFA was required to demonstrate its credentials in the area of international development. The funding of preliminary design and feasibility works for a CONCACAF Centre of Excellence in Trinidad was one of a range of international development projects FFA undertook. All were reported to the Australian government,'' Mr Patterson said.

"The funds were allocated from FFA's international football development budget at the time and were not part of government funds provided to the World Cup bid."

The government said it would not be seeking the return of the money as it was not part of the $45 million grant given to the FFA.
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