Exclusive: Ex FIFA GenSec points to serious ethics violation by bidder

By Paul Nicholson
June 10 – Former FIFA general secretary Michel Zen Ruffinen (right) who was caught in a newspaper sting in 2010 talking about rumours of vote collusion between the Spain/Portugal, Russia and Qatar world cup bids, now believes that the rumours circulating were fabricated, most probably by a rival bidding committee.

Speaking exclusively to INSIDEworldfootball, Zen Ruffinen talks about how he was invited, to a Geneva hotel, to meet with two marketing agency executives who were seeking consultancy help with a World Cup bid.

Prior to the meeting, Zen Ruffinen was encouraged to share the vote collusion rumours with them – they later turned out to be undercover Sunday Times reporters. Zen Ruffinen was seeking a mandate to work as a consultant and signed a contract with what turned out to be a bogus company. Needless to say he never received any fees.

The explosive rumours of vote collusion had reached Zen Ruffinen via two separate sources – one African and one European, working for a competing bid committee. He believes the European source had most likely fabricated the rumour and, though Zen Ruffinen does not say this, the rumour was manufactured in order to discredit rival bidders. The stakes were high and the marketing of all bids was intense.

But what is even more explosive is the implication that the real sting was not in fact manufactured at source by the Sunday Times, but in fact by a party within a bid committee as part of a dirty tricks campaign.

He also raises questions about the agenda of leading media organisations, particularly as they relate to FIFA and its properties.

The revelation raises yet more questions about a World Cup bid process that has proved to be deeply flawed. A process, the investigation of which at times, certainly within the press coverage, seems to have almost exclusively and incorrectly focused only on the behaviour of the Qataris.

See excerpt below.