Switzerland’s Supreme Court ruled that a document containing the names of officials from Fifa who took million-dollar kickbacks from the ISL agency, the former media rights distribution partner of football’s world governing body, cannot be published while the court continues to study the case.
Parties only identified as B2 and B3, who appealed to stop the publication of the document, were granted a “suspensive effect.” According to the Associated Press news agency, Fifa was party B1 in the appeal, but had elected to withdraw from the case in December 2011.
In the same month, a Zug court ruled that publishing the document was in the public’s interest. A federal court verdict on the overall case is expected in several months.
The case concerns the findings of the canton court in Zug that ISL, which distributed Fifa World Cup television rights before going bust in 2001 with debts of $300 million (€229 million), had paid kickbacks to Fifa officials in the 1990s to secure World Cup television rights. The officials agreed to repay $6.1 million on the condition that their identities would remain secret.