Accused of granting 450,000 Brazil World Cup tickets to his pals
Though FIFA President Sepp Blatter, currently in his fourth term, pledged reforms after the attacks made on the integrity and lack of transparency of the world’s supreme authority on football, he is again under fire. It will be recalled that on many occasions FIFA supremo has been criticised for the way he handles sensitive matters that yield millions of Swiss francs or dollars. The story of its marketing partner, International Sport & Leisure better known as ISL, is a case in point. In 2008, a Swiss court accused ISL of paying more than £66 million to FIFA officials. More recently there were many other allegations of scandals behind the successful bids by Russia and Qatar to organise the 2018 and 2022 World Cup editions. It is worth mentioning that a number of FIFA’s executive members were banned.
But the picture is not all clear. According to investigative journalist Andrew Jennings, who dug up FIFA’s company records in Zurich, Sepp Blatter is the only individual at FIFA who has sole signature rights. FIFA has $1.6 million in the bank. With 208 members that represent 300 million footballers around the world, FIFA has an income of $4.2 billion for the period 2007-2020.
Jennings, who must be credited with his most interesting though at times bizarre findings, presented a number of corruption investigations for BBC Panorama and ITV’s World in Action. He is also the author of The Lords of the Rings. It must be recalled that in 2006 Jennings also published Foul! The secret world of FIFA. Bribes, Vote rigging and ticket scandals. Then again, according to Wikipedia, in an hour-long BBC programme screened on 11 June 2006, Jennings and Panorama team agreed that Sepp Blatter was being investigated by Swiss police over his role in a secret deal to repay more than £1 million worth of bribes pocketed by football officials. Last December (2010), in another Panorama programme, allegations were made that Brazilians Ricardo Teixeida, Blatter’s predecessor Joao Havelange, Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Paraguayan Nicolas Leoz had all received big bribes during 1989-99, which they denied. Panorama also mentioned that they appeared on a list of 175 bribes paid by ISL and which totalled $100 million.
Jennings’ numerous findings hardly make him very popular with Blatter who reacted in April 2003 by banning the popular reporter from FIFA House. This is degrading in this day and age. Where is the much-emphasised freedom of the press?
Last October, Sepp Blatter said FIFA would look into the ISL financial scandal. The independent investigations will deal with the ISL settlement and will be published after its meeting on 17 December. He also announced the creation of four task forces to restore FIFA’s reputation following the tidal wave of scandals that threatened to swamp it. These task forces will deal with football rules, transparency, the ethics committee and FIFA statutes. UEFA President Michel Platini expressed his confidence in these reform plans.
Without tendering
Though Blatter has pledged reforms, it seems that he is once again under severe pressure after Andrew Jennings, following his recent trips to Brazil and Switzerland discovered that FIFA’s supremo gave 450,000 tickets for Brazil’s 2014 World Cup, with the price for luxury suites reaching $2.3 million, to his friends without any tender process. Blatter’s pals are two Mexican brothers Enrique and Jamie Byrom. They were given the privilege because “they are the most suitable candidates”. According to Jennings, nephew Philippe Blatter has a share as well. The same sources state that apart from their high-roller hospitality clients, apparently they also got the rest of the 3.2 million tickets again without tendering. The brothers are based in Cheadle and have been doing business with FIFA since 1986. They are assured of thousands and thousands of tickets for group matches and the final in Rio, and have also been guaranteed the Hospitality concession for the next two editions namely in Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022). The FIFA broadcast deals with different companies for these two World Cup editions worth $1.85 billion.
Lately, Blatter also showed his real limitations when he stated that ‘there is no racism in football’ at a time when, apart from many other incidents, Luiz Suarez of Liverpool was charged in the Patrice Evra (Man U) race row, and when serious enquiries are taking place concerning QOR’s Anton Ferdinand’s allegations against England’s skipper John Terry of Chelsea. There are many other episodes about racism in international football and he has been urged to quit but poor Sepp came up with the excuse that he was misunderstood!
Who would believe him?
Mr Formosa is a former National Coach.