Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, has refused to set foot in the US for almost four years due to a continuing investigation by the FBI, according to a major new ESPN documentary.
Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, has refused to set foot in the US for almost four years due to a continuing investigation by the FBI, according to a major new ESPN documentary.
The E60 programme, aired on Tuesday evening in the US, claimed that Blatter was reluctant to travel to the States due to an FBI investigation into the controversial process that led to the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals.
Sources have also told the Guardian that US investigators have been in touch with Swiss prosecutors over their investigation, with which the former Fifa executive committee member Chuck Blazer is believed to be cooperating.
According to reports last year, Blazer agreed to cooperate after he was approached over huge unpaid tax bills related to commissions he had received during his time as Concacaf general secretary. For Blatter to be questioned, the government would have had to obtain an arrest warrant.
Fifa refused to provide details of Blatter’s travel arrangements but said that during his four-year “mandate period” he usually tried to visit as many of the 209 member associations as possible.
“The information from ESPN that the Fifa president is avoiding travels to the USA because of any alleged FBI requests is absolutely untrue. Fifa has never received any request from the American law enforcement,” said a spokeswoman. The ESPN broadcast did not suggest that the FBI had made any such request. However, US sources said that Fifa would not need to be informed if the intention of the FBI was to question Blatter and other senior football officials. Later this month, Blatter is standing for his fifth term as Fifa president.
News of the FBI investigation first emerged in March 2013 with further details, including Blazer’s involvement, reported in November last in the New York Daily News.
Fifa last year conducted its own investigation into widespread claims of bribery and corruption during the chaotic bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively in December 2010. But the investigator Michael Garcia resigned after claiming a published summary misrepresented his findings and following concerted pressure Fifa eventually promised to publish his report in full with appropriate redactions.
However, it will not do so until after cases against various individuals implicated by the report have been fully investigated by its ethics committee.
Meanwhile the former Fifa executive committee member Reynald Temarii, currently general director of the Tahiti Football Association, has been banned from all football-related activity for eight years for accepting money from disgraced former Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam to fund his legal fight against an earlier ban ahead of the World Cup vote.
Bin Hammam had offered to pay his legal costs to the tune of $346,000 in the hope of extending the appeal process and thus denying one of Qatar’s rivals for the 2022 World Cup an extra vote. Temarii was originally banned for requesting money from undercover reporters during the bidding process.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.