By Andrew Warshaw
September 14 – As US and Swiss prosecutors prepared to hold an eagerly awaited press conference to update the world’s media on their separate investigations into corruption surrounding FIFA, outgoing president Sepp Blatter found himself unwittingly drawn into the whole murky saga.
A Swiss television programme alleges that in 2005 Blatter personally signed off the Caribbean broadcast rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups to disgraced former CONCACAF president Jack Warner for $250,000 and $350,000 respectively.
Warner is one of those named in the US indictment for alleged widespread money laundering and racketeering and his extradition is being sought from his native Trinidad. Blatter has not been cited for any wrongdoing but is stepping down on February 26 partly as a result of the ongoing probes.
The SRF programme published a contract signed by Blatter showing the TV rights were sold to the Caribbean Football Union controlled at the time by Warner.
Investigations by Britain’s Press Association have shown that Warner sub-licensed those rights to his own Cayman Islands-registered company J & D International (JDI). In 2007, JDI sold on the rights to Jamaica-based cable TV station SportsMax for a value that the broadcaster, according to agency reports, published on its own website as being between $18 million and $20 million (a huge sum for the Caribbean sports rights market).
According to court documents in the Cayman Islands, Jeffrey Webb – Warner’s successor as president of CONCACAF – was a director of JDI at the time of the deal.
When he took over at CONCACAF, Webb strongly denounced the previous regime as he tried to portray himself as the man to lead the confederation into a new era of transparency and accountability.
But like Warner, he too is facing corruption charges in the United States and was one of the high-profile officials arrested in the dawn aid in Zurich just before the FIFA congress at the end of May. Once touted as a potential future successor to Blatter, Webb agreed to extradition and is currently on bail awaiting trial.
FIFA responded to the Swiss programme by issuing a statement, carried by news agencies, confirming that “on 12 September 2005, FIFA signed a contract with the Caribbean Football Union regarding TV broadcasting rights.”
“Under the terms of this agreement FIFA was to receive a fixed licensing fee as well as a 50% share of any profits related to the subcontracting of these rights.
“The CFU made several breaches to the contract and failed to meet its financial obligations. The obligations concerning the required pre-approval for subcontracting were not met either. For these reasons, FIFA terminated its contract with the CFU on 25 July 2011.”
US attorney general Loretta Lynch is due to provide the latest details on the FIFA investigation at what is expected to be a packed news conference in Zurich on Monday afternoon. Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber is also due to speak about his country’s separate investigation into potential wrongdoing surrounding the bid process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
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