By Andrew Warshaw
June 2 – The corruption scandal that enveloped last week’s FIFA presidential election and has plunged world football’s governing body into its worst ever crisis deepened overnight with reported allegations in the United States that FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke (pictured) was the man behind a $10 million bank transfer that is central to the investigation being carried out by US authorities.
FIFA has been quick to deny the accusations, saying the payment was authorised by then FIFA finance chief Julio Grondona and that neither Valcke nor FIFA president Sepp Blatter was involved.
Within hours of FIFA announcing that Valcke had cancelled attending the opening of the prestigious women’s World Cup in Canada because “it is important that he attends to matters at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich”, his name was being mentioned as the “high-ranking FIFA official” who, according to the 47-count indictment filed last week in New York, in 2008 transferred £10 million to subsequently disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.
According to the indictment, the money was paid to then CONCACAF president Warner and his number two Chuck Blazer from a FIFA account to an account controlled by Warner.
It states: “On January 2, 2008, January 31, 2008 and March 7, 2008, a high-ranking FIFA official caused payments of USD 616,000, USD 1,600,000, and USD 7,784,000 – totalling USD 10 million – to be wired from a FIFA account in Switzerland to a Bank of America correspondent account in New York, New York, for credit to accounts held in the names of CFU and CONCACAF, but controlled by the defendant Jack Warner.”
If the FIFA account was indeed from Zurich, it has been suggested only Valcke and Blatter would have had the authority to approve a sum that large. It is important to note, however, that neither of them are named as defendants and neither has been accused of any wrongdoing.
Warner and Blazer are among 14 FIFA officials and other executives charged by the US justice department with taking bribes totalling some $150 million. Blazer, seriously ill with cancer, has pleaded guilty while Warner turned himself in last week in his native Trinidad and was bailed.
The $10 million payment is central to the investigation that accuses Warner and Blazer of taking bribes in exchange for helping South Africa secure the right to host the 2010 World Cup having narrowly missed out on the 2006 tournament.
With Blatter’s own position coming under increasing scrutiny, the New York Times named Valcke as the person who allegedly handled the payment which, according to the indictment, was made in three separate wire transfers in 2008. The paper cited unnamed law enforcement officials as claiming that Valcke was the high-ranking official in question.
Under pressure to make some kind of statement with its two most senior officials under growing suspicion, FIFA revealed that it was Grondona, one of Blatter’s firmest allies for many years who spent 26 years on the executive committee, who made the payment. The Argentine, who was FIFA’s finance chief at the time, died last year at the age of 82.
In a lengthy statement outlining the chronology, FIFA explained the money was for genuine football development, just as 2010 South Africa World Cup chief Danny Jordaan had insisted on Sunday when he told local media the payment was not in any way a bribe.
“In 2007, as part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the South African Government approved a USD 10m project to support the African diaspora in Caribbean countries as part of the World Cup legacy,” the FIFA statement said.
“At the request of the South African Government, and in agreement with the South African Football Association (SAFA), FIFA was asked to process the project’s funding by withholding USD 10m from the Local Organising Committee’s (LOC) operational budget and using that to finance the Diaspora Legacy Programme.”
“SAFA instructed FIFA that the Diaspora Legacy Programme should be administered and implemented directly by the President of CONCACAF who at that time was Deputy Chairman of the Finance Committee and who should act as the fiduciary of the Diaspora Legacy Programme Fund of USD 10m.
“The payments totalling USD 10m were authorised by the then chairman of the Finance Committee and executed in accordance with the Organisation Regulations of FIFA. FIFA did not incur any costs as a result of South Africa’s request because the funds belonged to the LOC. Both the LOC and SAFA adhered to the necessary formalities for the budgetary amendment.”
“Neither the Secretary General Jérôme Valcke nor any other member of FIFA’s senior management were involved in the initiation, approval and implementation of the above project.”
Whether such an explanation will satisfy US prosecutors remains to be seen since it is not known whether Blatter or Valcke would also have had to sign off such a large amount.
A copy of the letter that was sent to FIFA by the South African FA is reproduced below.
No sooner had he been released on bail than Warner, who four years ago predicted a football-style “Tsunami” when forced to resign after being caught up in the infamous cash-for-votes scandal surrounding the 2011 FIFA presidential election, was back on the offensive.
“Why are there no investigations in Asia, or in Europe?” Warner asked German magazine Stern. “Why are there no investigations into Sepp Blatter? No other person has brought so much shame and disgrace on FIFA.”
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