By Duncan Mackay at the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo
December 17 – FIFA has cleared Executive Committee member Worawi Makudi over a controversial land deal where saw the head of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) accused of benefitting from development funds, Sepp Blatter announced here today.
Makudi was accused of breaching conflict-of-interest ethics rules after the FAT President was alleged to have used $860,000 (£553,000/€659,000) of FIFA funding to build fields and offices on land his family was believed to own.
FIFA had given him an ultimatum of December 1 to prove that he had actually donated the land in question to his Association.
It had been claimed that Thailand’s national football training centre, built with money from FIFA’s GOAL programme and which UEFA President Michel Platini laid the first stone, was on a plot of land personally owned by Makudi, and that he owns other land around the centre.
But Makudi, a member of the FIFA Executive Committee for 14 years, has now produced documents proving that he had donated the land as he claimed, Blatter said.
“The Executive Comittee reviewed the investigations involving Mr Makudi regarding real estate andGoal projects, and all was found to be in good order,” the FIFA President said here today.
“The necessary documents were provided from Bangkok, so the case is closed.”
It remains unclear, though, as to what document he actually sent to FIFA.
Last month he said he had a “letter of intent” to donate the land and this was legal authority enough to claim he had transferred ownership.
In May, Lord Triesman, the former Football Association chairman, alleged to a Parliamentary Committee that Makudi had demanded the television rights for a proposed friendly game between England and Thailand in return for his World Cup 2018 vote.
Makudi denied it and Triesman’s claims could find no further evidence to support them.
But Makudi has so far also failed to follow through on threats to sue Triesman.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734789991labto1734789991ofdlr1734789991owedi1734789991sni@y1734789991akcam1734789991.nacn1734789991ud1734789991
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