by:
Mario Contini
Media Coordinator
5 April 2016 – Last year we were retained by one of our law firm clients to keep a running log of all developments in the multi-layered/multi-faceted/multi-country FIFA investgations and litigations. It is a daunting task. Our May 2015 to April 2016 timeline has 1,997 separate events related to the investigation.
Herein just a few major points:
Overview
In 2015, U.S. federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with FIFA, the governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer.
Near the end of May 2015, fourteen people were indicted in connection with an investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division into wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. The United States Attorney General simultaneously announced the unsealing of the indictments and the prior guilty pleas by four football executives and two corporations.
The investigation mostly revolved around collusion between officials of continental football bodies CONMEBOL (South America) and CONCACAF (Caribbean, Central and North America), and sports marketing executives. The sports marketing executives were holders of media and marketing rights for high-profile international competitions including the Americas’ FIFA World Cup qualifying tournaments, and showpiece tournaments CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa América.
CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb, also serving president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, was arrested in connection with the investigation, as were two sitting FIFA Executive Committee members: Eduardo Li of the Costa Rican Football Federation and Eugenio Figueredo, formerly of the Uruguayan Football Association, and former CONMEBOL President Nicolás Leoz. (The investigation lasted several years, with the first arrest, of former CONCACAF president Jack Warner’s son Daryll, made in July 2013).
In total, seven current FIFA officials were arrested at the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zürich on 27 May 2015. They were preparing to attend the 65th FIFA Congress, which was scheduled to include the election of the president of FIFA. They are expected to be extradited to the United States on suspicion of receiving US$150 million in bribes. There was also a simultaneous raid on the CONCACAF headquarters in Miami, and later, two further men handed themselves in to police for arrest: Jack Warner and marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco. Two further arrests of FIFA officials at the hotel occurred in December 2015.
The arrests case triggered Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany and Switzerland to open or intensify separate criminal investigations into top FIFA officials for corruption.
The major developments:
Blatter’s “resignation”
On 29 May 2015 Sepp Blatter won re-election to the FIFA presidency at the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich amid growing criticism over his position. Four days later, however, he announced that he would continue as president only until a new election would be conducted at a 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress on February 26, 2016. Blatter said that he would not be a candidate for election at that time. Blatter maintained “I did not resign, I put myself and my office in the hands of the Fifa congress.”
On 8 October 2015, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Secretary General Jerome Valcke and UEFA President Michel Platini were suspended for 90 days by FIFA’s Ethics Committee. Blatter appealed the suspension but lost the appeal on 18 November 2015.
Upon the decision of the FIFA Adjudicatory Chamber of the Independent Ethics Committee to provisionally ban Blatter, FIFA recognizes Issa Hayatou as the interim president of FIFA in accordance with article 32 (6) of the FIFA Statutes.
Suspended World Cup bid
On 10 June 2015, FIFA announced that they would be delaying the 2026 FIFA World Cup bidding process, amidst allegations surrounding bribery in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes. Secretary general Valcke stated that “Due to the situation, I think it’s nonsense to start any bidding process for the time being.”
Convicted defendants
As of February 2016, according to the US Department of Justice web site, 8 defendants have pleaded guilty under seal and agreed to forfeit more than $80 million.
New FIFA president
On 26 February 2016, an extraordinary FIFA Congress was held and elected UEFA Secretary General Gianni Infantino as the new president of FIFA while also passing a major reform package.
Panama Papers Leak
FIFA might have hoped that the election of a new president would have drawn a line under the swathe of negative headlines soccer’s world governing body has had to endure. But just over a month after Gianni Infantino’s election, FIFA has been caught up in the massive leak of documents — dubbed the Panama Papers — over the weekend of 3 April 2016 which allege business ties between a key member of FIFA’s ethics committee and men indicted for corruption.
Note: some of the spade work was done by the BBC documentary series “Panorama” back in 2010 when they ran an episode titled “FIFA’s Dirty Secrets”. It was an overall look into allegations of corruption with FIFA, its claims about the corrupt bidding process for hosting the FIFA World Cup proven by the present investigations. The documentary was broadcast only three days before the result of the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups were announced. This led to fears from some people that it could ruin England’s chances of hosting the former tournament, with some accusing the BBC of being unpatriotic; however, the BBC defended these claims. Russia ultimately won the right to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018, with Qatar emerging victorious for the 2022 tournament – those very bids now very suspect.
Our friends at Sports Management Degree have been putting together a nifty graphic to pull this all together to provide an overall sweep of the statistics, which includes some excellent citations:
Source: SportsManagementDegreeHub.com
