By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
November 29 – Renewed corruption allegations involving FIFA Executive Committee members surfaced today just days before they are due to appoint the hosts of football’s 2018 and 2022 World Cups under the eyes of world leaders.
The Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported that Ricardo Teixeira, the former President of the Brazilian Football Federation, and Issa Hayatou, the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from Cameroon, were named in a secret list of payments from bankrupt FIFA marketing partner ISMM/ISL a decade ago, along with Paraguay’s Nicolas Leoz, whose involvement was already widely known.
The firm collapsed in 2001 in a storm of controversy over alleged kickbacks for television rights contracts, prompting a FIFA criminal complaint that was later dropped.
A court in the Swiss canton of Zug eventually handed down fines on three ISMM/ISL executives in 2008 for embezzlement or accounting offences.
The allegations are expected to be among the main subjects covered by the controversial BBC programme Panorama, which is due to be screened tonight.
Documents published by Tages-Anzeiger allege that Teixeira, the former son-in-law of ex-FIFA President Joao Havelange, collected up to $9.5 million (£6.1 million) in fees from ISL, receiving the payments in instalments of between $250,000 (£160,000) and $1 million (£642,000).
Hayatou, meanwhile, allegedly received up to 175 secret payments, some of up to $100,000 (£64,000) each, according to the newspaper.
The names of the officials who received the bribes have not been named because none of the defendants were facing bribery charges as it was not an offence at the time under Swiss law.
Swiss Prosecution officials in Zug claimed in June that leading football officials were involved had taken bribes from the ISL/ISMM group, the former marketing agent of FIFA, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), who collapsed in 2001 with debts of £153 million ($229 million).
It has been alleged that more than £66 million ($99 million) was paid to leading sports officials in bribes to secure valuable marketing and television rights contracts.
The Prosecution office in Zug had revealed that “foreign persons of FIFA-institutions have received provisions from the ISL/ISMM” but refused to name who they were, although they did make it clear that none of them were Swiss nationals, ruling out FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
Leoz was already listed as a recipient of suspect payments from the marketing firm, alongside several companies based in offshore havens, in evidence presented by the Zug prosecutor in 2005.
The Paraguayan FIFA Executive Committee had been found to have received two separate payments from ISL totalling around £85,000 ($127,000).
All three long-standing Executive Committee members are among the 22 remaining top officials due to vote on Thursday (December 2) on the World Cup hosts.
FIFA’s Ethics Committee sidelined two others, Oceania football chief Reynald Temarii and Nigeria’s Amos Adamu, on November 18 when it suspended them for misconduct or bribery following an undercover report in the Sunday Times.
FIFA refused to comment on the latest allegations.
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