Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, football’s world governing body, has been criticised by the Council of Europe for his apparent failure to act decisively over the scandal involving the ISL agency.
ISL, which distributed Fifa World Cup television rights before going bust in 2001 with debts of $300 million (€229 million), paid kickbacks to Fifa officials to secure World Cup television rights.
“Since Fifa was aware of significant sums paid to certain of its officials, it is difficult to imagine that Mr Blatter would not have known about this,” the council’s report said. The report was authored by French national assembly member Francois Rochebloine.
“That does not mean that he was directly involved. But I believe it is extraordinary that he did nothing to make public all the information which Fifa had or has, and took no steps whether internally or via the courts to enable Fifa to obtain reparation,” the report said.
The council published Swiss prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand’s testimony, which stated that two unnamed Fifa officials received payments of more than $15.5 million from ISL. The money was described as “commission payments” to ensure Fifa officials could influence the award of television contracts.
Hildbrand said ‘person H’ received more than $13.7 million between 1992 and 1997 and further payments between 1998 and 2000. The report added that another official, ‘person E’, received $1.6 million in March 1997 and potentially additional payments until May 2000.
Last month, Switzerland’s Supreme Court said that a document containing the names of Fifa officials who received the payments could not be published while the country’s federal court continues to study the case. The federal court is expected to deliver its verdict in a few months’ time.
The Council of Europe is an international body comprising 47 nations committed to increasing cooperation between European countries and upholding democracy and human rights.