By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
December 2 – Michel d’Hooghe, one of FIFA’s longest-serving administrators who is being investigated as part of the World Cup anti-corruption probe, says he is suffering “the hardest period of my life” and being treated “like a murderer” even though he has done nothing wrong and has absolutely nothing to hide.
Breaking his silence on the affair in a candid and revealing interview with Insideworldfootball, d’Hooghe says he simply cannot work out why he has been targeted when, he says, he co-operated fully with Michael Garcia’s 18-month inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 bid process that has plunged FIFA into turmoil and confusion.
The 68-year-old Belgian doctor, chairman of FIFA’s medical committee, is one of three current executive committee members who took part in the December 2010, ballot that chose Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts and who are now reported to be facing formal disciplinary action.
The others are Spain’s FIFA vice-president Ángel María Villar Llona and Thailand’s Worawi Makudi. German legend Franz Beckenbauer, who also voted four years ago but has since retired from FIFA, is being investigated as well, as is a fifth individual, Chile’s Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who led the FIFA technical inspection team that evaluated all nine candidates.
Having already co-operated with Garcia’s inquiry, d’Hooghe revealed he received a follow-up request in mid-October to provide further information to FIFA’s ethics committee. He specifically remembers the time line.
“I immediately agreed to go again and did so on November 19 and correctly answered all the points they wanted clearing up,” he said. “I thought at that point it was over.”
“Now, I don’t know why, they have published the names of five people apparently under investigation and this is AFTER I went back to give them more information.”
Because the case is ongoing, d’Hooghe has to be judicious in terms of what he can and can’t say because he is bound by confidentiality. He is at a loss to explain, however, why this confidentiality has seemingly not been reciprocal.
It was Garcia, he revealed, who told him via email that he was being investigated. “You should ask other people, not me, why they have published my name. It’s a very good question.”
“I am surprised confidentiality was broken. I, at least, have kept my side about confidentiality because I was asked to and that’s what I will do for the moment. I will defend myself in the correct way.”
D’Hooghe says he wants any case against him cleared up sooner rather than later.
“I have asked for a quick conclusion because I am under great pressure. I have been 42 years in football and 26 in the executive committee but this is the hardest period of my life. You are just considered like a murderer. I am simply a man who has worked for years and years to improve medical issues at FIFA. I’m not so much upset as very, very sad.”
Two of the reasons d’Hooghe is reportedly being probed are that his son moved to Qatar in 2012 to take a job as a doctor, and that he was given a painting as a gift by the Russians in the build-up to the World Cup ballot.
According to the Sunday Times, d’Hooghe, whose country jointly bid with Holland for 2018, is also alleged in a database of intelligence gathering on behalf of England’s own failed bid, to have possibly traded votes with Japan’s FIFA exco member. Japan was one of the candidates for 2022 in the joint ballot.
D’Hooghe describes the vote-trading claim as “total bull… and absolutely not true” and says neither his son’s job nor the painting had anything whatsoever to do with the voting process.
Although he would not go into detail, in a previous interview with this website before Garcia launched his investigation, d’Hooghe addressed in full the allegation that he received a piece of fine Russian art in exchange for his 2018 World Cup vote.
He freely conceded he did receive a gift from a long-time Russian colleague, that he could not refuse it out of courtesy but that it had no material value and he stored it away in his attic in Bruges.
“The allegations hurt me,” D’Hooghe said at the time. “I didn’t promise anything to anyone, I didn’t vote for Russia – I voted for my own country – and I never received Russian art. Do you think after 23 years with a reputation for integrity that I would sell my vote for a stupid painting that has no value? You can come and play darts on it if you like.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734839020labto1734839020ofdlr1734839020owedi1734839020sni@w1734839020ahsra1734839020w.wer1734839020dna1734839020