Imagina, the operator of the Mediapro agency, has categorically denied that it is involved in an investigation into allegations of football rights corruption after the Reuters news agency reported that an affiliate of the Spanish media company is one of the unidentified sports marketing companies to have been allegedly implicated in the scandal by the US Department of Justice.
The report said that Media World, a subsidiary of Imagina US is ‘Sports Marketing Company C’, which is alleged in the indictment to have agreed with the Traffic USA agency to split equally a $3m (€2.7m) bribe to Jeffrey Webb, who was then the head of Concacaf, football’s governing body in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Reuters cited two sources familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
US prosecutors have charged Webb with racketeering, wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money.
Reuters said that the US indictment claimed that the decision to pay the $1.5m bribe was made on Media World's behalf by “a senior executive” of the European parent company of “Sports Marketing Company C.” Imagina said that it had no evidence that any of its executives were alleged to be co-conspirators in the indictment.
Imagina added: "There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that Media World is the company named in the indictment filed by the US Attorney General. Neither Media World nor Imagina US (nor, indeed, any other company in the Group) has received any request or demand for information from the US authorities investigating the case. In fact, the Brooklyn prosecutor leading the investigation has not identified Media World as the company cited in the investigation. The sources cited by Reuters are related to the industry sector, a fact acknowledged by Reuters itself. That is to say that they are neither police nor legal sources; no doubt they are one of Media World’s industry competitors."
The company added: "The indictment published by the US Department of Justice makes it clear that the company mentioned, which at no point is identified as Media World, did not pay any bribes, neither directly nor indirectly. Not at the moment it entered into an agreement with Traffic nor in the years that have subsequently passed. In the last few weeks the world’s leading marketing and communications companies (Directv, Fox, Liberty Media, Nike, ATT and many more) have been cited in reports related to the scandal under investigation simply for having, at one time or another, like Media World, a link with Traffic, and none of those have been charged with anything either."
Article updated with Imagina statement at 14.10 on July 10.