Monday, March 24, 2014 SPORT | 77
THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com
Qatar 2022 scandal, another stench from FIFA’s house of corruption By Adeyinka Adedipe ORLD football governing body, FIFA and W scandals are like Siamese twins, joined together in such a way that it is getting extremely difficult to separate the two, as recent events have proved. The latest investigation into how money were paid for votes for the award of World Cup hosting rights to Russia in 2018 and Qatar 2022 is a further dent on FIFA’s battered image and has brought to the fore the level of rot in the largest sport federation. The first inkling of the rot in FIFA emerged after the collapse of discredited former marketing partner, International Sports Leisure (ISL), which went bankrupt in 2001 and was also at the centre of allegations regarding kickbacks paid to senior FIFA officials in the 1990s, dating back to when Joao Havelange held sway at FIFA. Bringing the allegation of corruption at FIFA to the fore, British investigative journalist, Andrew Jennings in his book Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals caused controversy within the football world by detailing an alleged international cash-for-contracts scandal following the collapse of ISL, and revealed how some football officials have been urged to secretly repay the sweeteners they received. The book also alleged that vote-rigging had occurred in the fight for Sepp Blatter’s continued control of FIFA. Shortly after the release of Foul! a BBC television exposé by Jennings and producer, Roger Corke for the BBC news programme, Panorama was broadcast. In the hour-long programme, screened on June 11 2006, Jennings and the Panorama team agreed that Sepp Blatter was being investigated by Swiss police over his role in a secret deal to repay more than £1m worth of bribes pocketed by football officials. All testimonies offered in the Panorama exposé were provided through a disguised voice, appearance, or both, except one; Mel Brennan, formerly a lecturer at Towson University in the United States (and from 2001–2003 Head of Special Projects for CONCACAF, a liaison to the e-FIFA project and a 2002 FIFA World Cup delegate), who became the first high-level football insider to go public with substantial allegations of greed, corruption, failure to meet legal obligation and misconduct by CONCACAF and FIFA leadership. During the Panorama exposé, Brennan—the highest-level African-American in the history of world football governance—joined Jennings, Trinidadian journalist, Lisana Liburd and many others in exposing allegedly inappropriate allocations of money at CONCACAF, and drew connections between ostensible CONCACAF criminality and similar behaviours at FIFA. In a further Panorama documentary broadcast on BBC One on November 29, 2010, Jennings alleged that three senior FIFA officials, Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira, had been paid huge bribes by ISL between 1989 and 1999, which FIFA had failed to investigate. He claimed they appeared on a list of 175 bribes paid by ISL, totalling about $100 million. A former ISL executive said that there were suspicions within ISL that the company was only awarded the marketing contract for successive World Cups by paying bribes to FIFA officials. In November 2010, One of FIFA’s most senior figures, Nigeria’s Amos Adamu became the first official from the organisation ever to be banned for bribery after six officials were punished following a corruption scandal. Adamu received a three-year ban and 10,000 Swiss francs (£6,341) fine from FIFA’s ethics committee after being found guilty of breaching bribery rules. His fellow executive committee member, Reynald Temarii was suspended for a year and fined 5,000 Swiss francs (£3,170) for breaching rules on loyalty and confidentiality. The bans follow a Sunday Times expose, which alleged the officials had asked for cash in return for World Cup votes. None of the banned officials took part in the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. Four other FIFA officials, all former executive committee members, also received bans of between two and four years. The hammer came down harder on other corrupt elements, as FIFA banned for life Asian Football Confederation boss, Bin Hammam 2011 after he decided to quit all football related activities and suspended CONCACAF President, Jack Warner, who later resigned in 2011. Trouble started for Hammam when he challenged Sepp Blatter in FIFA’s 2011 presidential election, but he withdrew to fight bribery allegations, which he was later cleared of.
Spain lifting the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa
Hamman
Blatter
Bin Hammam’s problems worsened when a report by FIFA executive committee member, Chuck Blazer accused him and former FIFA Vice-President, Jack Warner of trying to secure votes by jointly organising a special meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) in which the organisation’s members were offered sums of cash for “development projects”. He was subsequently banned from “any kind of football-related activity” by FIFA, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) annulled the decision in July due to insufficient evidence. After the first failed attempt, a new investigation into his financial dealings, dating back to his time in charge of Asian football, was then launched by FIFA’s ethics committee. This led to a 90-day ban, which CAS refused to cancel in 2012. Now, a fresh allegation of corruption came up last week through a story by The Telegraph of London, which quotes Blatter as admitting that FIFA’s ethics committee is investigating revelations that Jack Warner, the former vicepresident of FIFA, and executive committee member, Mohamed Bin Hammam, were paid large sums of money just five days after the decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup With this admission, FIFA has finally acknowledged new corruption allegations relating to the 2022 World Cup ballot disclosed last week. After failing to comment for three days, a statement by the head of its ethics committee, Michael Garcia was read out at a press conference in Zurich. It said: “The ethics committee is aware of the material identified in the article. As with all allegations of misconduct by football officials, the ethics committee will take whatever action it deems is appropriate.” Garcia has been to Zurich to interview the remaining FIFA executive committee members, who voted in the controversial 2010 ballot that awarded Russia and Qatar the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. Blatter was upbeat about the committee’s ability to do a good job, when he said: “I`m happy
that now we have an independent committee for ethics. This is a matter now to be dealt with by this committee. You have listened to a statement that the head of the committee has made. And I`m not going to make any comments on that.” Speaking from FIFA`s headquarters in Zurich, where the flags of its 209 member nations fly over manicured lawns, Blatter had convened with FIFA officials for the last meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee to be held before the June congress in São Paulo. Reacting to the recent allegation of corruption at FIFA, British Prime Minister, David Cameron labelled the World Cup vote outcome as “`sorted` before we went into it” with the former chairman of England’s World Cup bid, Lord Triesman branding FIFA “corrupt”. The Telegraph revealed last Tuesday that Jack Warner, the former vice-president of FIFA, appears to have been personally paid $1.2million (£720,000) from a company controlled by former Qatari football official and executive committee member Mohamed Bin Hammam - just five days after the decision to award Qatar the 2022 tournament. On Wednesday last week, a chorus of MPs called for an inquiry into Qatar`s World Cup ballot victory, while others said the bid should be rerun altogether. Major League Soccer commissioner, Don Garber said on Thursday that a Qatar World Cup could be a “monumental disaster”. Unperturbed, Warner, currently a politician in Trinidad, speaking on the Telegraph’s revelations on Wednesday, said: “I have no interest in joining in the foolishness that is now passing as news on Qatar and Jack Warner. “Nor do I intend to join those who are on a witch hunt against the World Cup 2022 venue. And do consider this as my final comment on this matter.” A spokesman for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising committee said: “The 2022 bid committee strictly adhered to FIFA’s bidding regulations in compliance with their code of
Warner ethics. “The supreme committee for delivery and legacy and the individuals involved in the 2022 bid committee are unaware of any allegations surrounding business dealings between private individuals.” Bin Hammam, on his part, declined to comment. Despite the denial by Qatar and Warner, a Conservative MP in England, Damian Collins, who is campaigning for reform of the world governing body, said FIFA should rerun the bid for the 2022 World Cup if an FBI investigation proves corrupt payments were made in connection with the vote. Collins, who used parliamentary privilege in 2011 to state allegations that two FIFA members had been paid to vote for Qatar 2022, said: “If the FBI investigation can prove that corrupt payments were made to FIFA executives in connection to the decision to award that country the World Cup, they should lose the right to host the tournament and the competition to stage World Cup 2022 should be rerun. “These reports will only fuel concerns that the decision to award Qatar the World Cup was made for money reasons, not sporting ones, and that’s wrong. “The report on the FBI investigation suggests a web of lies and corruption at the highest levels of FIFA. This is something FIFA has never fully investigated and if these allegations are proven, there has to be a top-to-bottom review of the roles and workings of members of FIFA’s executive committee.” There are fears by stakeholders that the ethic committee may be compromised and welcome and backed an independent body to do a better job. They wondered how Blatter, who has been the President of FIFA since 1998, could wash his hands off all these allegations. As the head of the federation, he must take responsibility for the actions of his executive committee,” they reasoned. What is clear from this latest development is that the last has not been heard of the shady deals at FIFA and if properly conducted, more heads may role as the investigation continues.