By Andrew Warshaw
February 10 – FIFA’s decision to block $20 million of funding to CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, the two confederations at the centre of football’s worst ever corruption crisis, was implemented late last year and approved by acting general secretary Markus Kattner as well as members of the executive committee, Insideworldfootball has learned.
Ever since news of the unprecedented move broke last week, smack in the middle of the build-up to the FIFA presidential election, conspiracy theories have been rife about the timing, with fingers pointed in the direction of Domenico Scala, chairman not only of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee but also the body which oversees the electoral process.
FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein has claimed the decision to cut off funding to the two regions that cover the whole of the Americas was ill-timed and was “holding votes to ransom” ahead of the ballot in Zurich on February 26.
But Insideworldfootball can reveal that the action was “strongly advised” by the audit and compliance committee back on November 30 and approved by the executive committee a few days later, weakening the argument that it was in any way a ploy to influence the outcome of the presidential election.
Scala’s office is adamant that with both CONMEBOL and CONCACAF in financial disarray, the decision was taken in order to prevent any more of FIFA’s money being squandered and was not in any way intended as a punitive measure.
Scala faces accusations that he has kicked the two confederations while they are already down and are trying to repair the damage to their tarnished organisations; and that by halting the payments, smaller federations who may have done nothing wrong will now suffer cash-flow problems.
But by a remarkable co-incidence (or was it?), the recommendation to stop the funding came just three days before CONMEBOL and CONCACAF were plunged into further ignominy when their respective presidents Juan Angel Napout and Alfredo Hawit (interim) were both arrested in the latest swoop on senior officials as part of the US-led corruption probe.
Why FIFA did not mention the funding block at a news conference straight after the December 3 exco meeting is unclear but it now seems the senior administration was in agreement.
A source close to the audit and compliance committee told Insideworldfootball: “Everybody shared the view to stop the funding, including Kattner. And there was not a single dissenting voice within the exco.”
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