In May 2006, British investigative reporter
Andrew Jennings' book
Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging, and Ticket Scandals (
HarperCollins) caused controversy within the football world by detailing an alleged international cash-for-contracts scandal following the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner
International Sport and Leisure (ISL) and revealed how some football officials had been urged to secretly repay the sweeteners they received. The book also alleged that vote-rigging had occurred in the fight for
Sepp Blatter's continued control of FIFA as the organisation's president. Shortly after the release of
Foul! a
BBC Panorama exposé by Jennings and BBC producer Roger Corke, screened on 11 June 2006, reported that Blatter was being investigated by Swiss police over his role in a secret deal to repay more than £1m worth of
bribes pocketed by football officials.
Lord Triesman, the former chairman of the English Football Association, described FIFA as an organisation that "behaves like a
mafia family", highlighting the organisation's "decades-long traditions of bribes, bungs, and corruption". All testimonies offered in the
Panorama exposé were provided through a disguised voice, appearance, or both, save one:
Mel Brennan, a former CONCACAF official, became the first high-level football insider to go public with substantial allegations of corruption, nonfeasance, and malfeasance by CONCACAF and FIFA leadership. Brennan—the highest-level African-American in the history of world football governance—joined Jennings, Trinidadian journalist Lisana Liburd, and many others in exposing allegedly inappropriate allocations of money by CONCACAF and drew connections between ostensible CONCACAF criminality and similar behaviors at FIFA. Since then, and in the light of fresh allegations of corruption by FIFA in late 2010, both Jennings and Brennan remain highly critical of FIFA. Brennan has called directly for an alternative to FIFA to be considered by the stakeholders of the sport worldwide. In a further
Panorama exposé broadcast on 29 November 2010, Jennings alleged that three senior FIFA officials,
Nicolas Leoz,
Issa Hayatou and
Ricardo Teixeira, had been paid huge bribes by ISL between 1989 and 1999, which FIFA had failed to investigate. Jennings claimed they appeared on a list of 175 bribes paid by ISL, totalling about $100 million. A former ISL executive said there were suspicions within the company that they were only awarded the marketing contract for successive World Cups by paying bribes to FIFA officials. The program also alleged that another current official,
Jack Warner, has been repeatedly involved in reselling World Cup tickets to touts; Blatter said that FIFA had not investigated the allegation because it had not been told about it via 'official channels.'
Panorama also alleged that FIFA requires nations bidding to host the World Cup to agree to implement special laws, including a blanket
tax exemption for FIFA and its corporate sponsors and limitation of
workers rights. Contrary to FIFA's demands, these conditions were revealed by the Dutch government, resulting in them being told by FIFA that their bid could be adversely affected. Following Jennings' earlier investigations, he was banned from all FIFA press conferences for reasons he claimed had not been made clear. The accused officials failed to answer questions about his latest allegations verbally or by letter. UK Prime Minister
David Cameron and
Andy Anson, head of England's World Cup bid, criticized the timing of the broadcast three days before FIFA decided on the host for the
2018 FIFA World Cup, because it might damage England's bid; the voters included officials accused by the program. In June 2011, it came to light that the
International Olympic Committee had started inquiry proceedings against FIFA honorary president
João Havelange into claims of bribery.
Panorama alleged that Havelange accepted a $1 million 'bung' in 1997 from ISL. The IOC stated that it "takes all allegations of corruption very seriously, and we would always ask for any evidence of wrongdoing involving any IOC members to be passed to our ethics commission". In a 2014 interview, American sportswriter
Dave Zirin said that corruption is endemic to FIFA leadership and that the organisation should be abolished for the game's good. He said that currently, FIFA is in charge of both monitoring corruption in association football matches and marketing and selling the sport, but that two "separate" organisational bodies are needed: an organisational body that monitors corruption and match-fixing and the like and an organisation that's responsible for marketing and sponsorships and selling the sport. Zirin said the idea of having a single organisation responsible for both seems highly ineffective and detrimental to the sport. In May 2015, 14 people were arrested, including nine FIFA officials, after being accused of corruption. In the 2022 World Cup bid, Qatar was honored to host the World Cup. Since then it has been discovered that Qatar paid as much as $200 billion to host the World Cup. This information was discovered by the Tass news agency in Russia.
Guilty pleas Between 2013 and 2015 four individuals, and two sports television rights corporations pleaded guilty to United States financial misconduct charges. The pleas of
Chuck Blazer,
José Hawilla, Daryan Warner, Darrell Warner,
Traffic Group and
Traffic Sports USA were unsealed in May 2015.
Indictments and arrests Fourteen FIFA officials and marketing executives were indicted by the
United States Department of Justice in May 2015. The officials were
arrested in Switzerland and are in the process of extradition to the US. Specific charges (brought under the
RICO act) include
wire fraud,
racketeering, and
money laundering. "Swiss authorities say they have also opened a separate criminal investigation into FIFA's operations pertaining to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids". FIFA's top officials were arrested at a hotel in Switzerland on suspicion of receiving bribes totalling $100m (£65m). The US Department of Justice stated that nine FIFA officials and four executives of sports management companies were arrested and accused of over $150m in bribes. The UK Shadow Home Secretary and Labour Member of Parliament,
Andy Burnham, stated in May 2015 that England should boycott the 2018 World Cup against corruption in FIFA and military aggression by Russia.
2018 and 2022 World Cup bids FIFA's choice to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has been widely criticized by media. It has been alleged that some FIFA inside sources insist that the Russian kickbacks of cash and gifts given to FIFA executive members were enough to secure the Russian 2018 bid weeks before the result was announced. Sepp Blatter was widely criticized in the media for giving a warning about the "evils of the media" in a speech to FIFA executive committee members shortly before they voted on the hosting of the 2018 World Cup, a reference to
The Sunday Times exposés, and the
Panorama investigation. Two members of FIFA's executive committee were banned from all football-related activity in November 2010 for allegedly offering to sell their votes to undercover newspaper reporters. In early May 2011, a British parliamentary inquiry into why England failed to secure the 2018 finals was told by a member of parliament,
Damian Collins, that there was evidence from
The Sunday Times newspaper that
Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and
Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast were paid by Qatar. Qatar has categorically denied the allegations, as have Hayatou and Anouma. FIFA president Blatter said, , that the British newspaper
The Sunday Times has agreed to bring its whistle-blowing source to meet senior FIFA officials, who will decide whether to order a new investigation into alleged World Cup bidding corruption. "[The
Sunday Times] are happy, they agreed that they will bring this whistleblower here to Zürich and then we will have a discussion, an investigation of this", Blatter said. Specifically, the whistle-blower claims that FIFA executive committee members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma were paid $1.5 million to vote for Qatar. The emirate's bid beat the United States in a final round of voting last December. Blatter did not rule out reopening the 2022 vote if corruption could be proved, but urged taking the matter "step by step". The FIFA president said his organisation is "anxiously awaiting" more evidence before asking its ethics committee to examine allegations made in Britain's Parliament in early May 2011. Hayatou, who is from Cameroon, leads the
Confederation of African Football and is a FIFA vice-president. Anouma is president of
Ivorian Football Federation. The whistle-blower said Qatar agreed to pay a third African voter,
Amos Adamu, for his support. . The
Nigerian was later suspended from voting after a FIFA ethics court ruled he solicited bribes from undercover Sunday Times reporters posing as lobbyists. Blatter said the newspaper and its whistle-blower would meet with FIFA secretary general,
Jérôme Valcke, and legal director, Marco Villiger. Allegations against FIFA officials have also been made to the UK Parliament by
David Triesman, the former head of England's bid and the English Football Association. Triesman told the lawmakers that four long-standing FIFA executive committee members—
Jack Warner,
Nicolás Leoz,
Ricardo Teixeira and
Worawi Makudi—engaged in "improper and unethical" conduct in the 2018 bidding, which was won by Russia. All six FIFA voters have denied wrongdoing. On 28 September 2015,
Sepp Blatter suggested that the
2018 World Cup being awarded to Russia was planned before the voting, and that the
2022 World Cup would have then been awarded to the United States. However, this plan changed after the election ballot, and the 2022 World Cup was awarded to Qatar instead of the US. According to leaked documents seen by
The Sunday Times, Qatari state-run television channel Al Jazeera secretly offered $400 million to FIFA, for broadcasting rights, just 21 days before FIFA announced that Qatar would hold the 2022 World Cup. On 17 July 2012, in the wake of announced anti-corruption reforms by Sepp Blatter, the president of the FIFA, the organisation appointed US lawyer
Michael J. Garcia as the chairman of the investigative chamber of
FIFA Ethics Committee, while German judge
Hans-Joachim Eckert was appointed as the chairman of the Ethics Committee's
adjudication chamber. In August 2012, Garcia declared his intention to investigate the bidding process and decision to respectively award the right to host the 2018 and 2022
FIFA World Cup to
Russia and
Qatar by the
FIFA Executive Committee. Garcia delivered his subsequent 350-page
report in September 2014, and Eckert then announced that it would not be made public for legal reasons. On 13 November 2014, Eckert released a 42-page summary of his findings after reviewing Garcia's report. The summary cleared both Russia and Qatar of any wrongdoing during the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, leaving Russia and Qatar free to stage their respective World Cups. FIFA welcomed "the fact that a degree of closure has been reached", while the
Associated Press wrote that the Eckert summary "was denounced by critics as a
whitewash". A day later, Garcia resigned from his role as FIFA ethics investigator in protest of FIFA's conduct, citing a "lack of leadership" and lost confidence in the independence of Eckert from FIFA. In June 2015, Swiss authorities claimed the report was of "little value". In November 2022, the FIFA officials told players not to get involved in politics but focus on sports when they are in Qatar. A few weeks earlier, the football associations and players of Denmark and Australia criticized Qatar for this.
2011 FIFA presidential election FIFA announced on 25 May 2011 that it had opened the investigation to examine the conduct of four officials—
Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner, along with
Caribbean Football Union (CFU) officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester—in relation to claims made by executive committee member,
Chuck Blazer. Blazer, who was at the time, the general secretary of the
CONCACAF confederation, has alleged that violations were committed under the FIFA code of ethics during a meeting organized by Bin Hammam and Warner on 10 and 11 May—the same time Lord Triesman had accused Warner of demanding money for a World Cup 2018 vote—in relation to the 2011 FIFA presidential election, in which Bin Hammam, who also played a key role in the
Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid, allegedly offered financial incentives for votes cast in his favor during the presidential election. As a result of the investigation both Bin Hammam and Warner were suspended. Warner reacted to his suspension by questioning Blatter's conduct and adding that FIFA secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, had told him via e-mail that Qatar had bought the 2022 World Cup. Valcke subsequently issued a statement denying he had suggested it was bribery, saying instead that the country had "used its financial muscle to lobby for support". Qatar officials denied any impropriety. Bin Hammam also responded by writing to FIFA, protesting unfair treatment in suspension by the FIFA Ethics Committee and FIFA administration. Further evidence emerged of alleged corruption. On 30 May 2011, Fred Lunn, vice-president of the
Bahamas Football Association, said that he was given $40,000 in cash as an incitement to vote for FIFA presidential candidate, Mohamed bin Hammam. In addition, on 11 June 2011 Louis Giskus, president of the
Surinamese Football Association, alleged that he was given $40,000 in cash for "development projects" as an incentive to vote for Bin Hammam.
Response to allegations After being re-elected as president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter responded to the allegations by promising to reform FIFA in wake of the bribery scandal, with
Danny Jordaan, CEO of the
2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, saying there is great expectation for reform. Former US Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger is being tipped for a role on the newly proposed 'Solutions Committee', and former
Netherlands national football team player
Johan Cruyff was also being linked with a role.
UEFA secretary-general
Gianni Infantino said he hopes for "concrete" measures to be taken by the world game's authority. Saying that "the UEFA executive committee has taken note of the will of FIFA to take concrete and effective measures for good governance ... [and is] following the situation closely."
IOC president
Jacques Rogge commented on the situation by saying that he believes FIFA "can emerge stronger" from its worst-ever crisis, stating that "I will not point a finger and lecture ... I am sure FIFA can emerge stronger and from within". Several of FIFA's partners and sponsors have raised concerns about the allegations of corruption, including
Coca-Cola,
Adidas,
Emirates and
Visa. Coca-Cola raised concerns by saying "the current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport"; with Adidas saying "the negative tenor of the public debate around Fifa at the moment is neither good for football nor for Fifa and its partners"; moreover Emirates raised its concerns by saying "we hope that these issues will be resolved as soon as possible"; and Visa adding "the current situation is clearly not good for the game and we ask that Fifa take all necessary steps to resolve the concerns that have been raised."
Theo Zwanziger, president of the
German Football Association, also called on FIFA to re-examine the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Transparency International, which had called on FIFA to postpone the election pending a full independent investigation, renewed its call on FIFA to change its governance structure. Moreover, former
Argentine football player
Diego Maradona was critical of FIFA in light of the corruption scandal, comparing members of the board to dinosaurs. He said "Fifa is a big museum. They are dinosaurs who do not want to relinquish power. It's always going to be the same." In October 2011,
Dick Pound criticized the organisation, saying, "FIFA has fallen far short of a credible demonstration that it recognizes the many problems it faces, that it has the will to solve them, that it is willing to be transparent about what it is doing and what it finds, and that its conduct in the future will be such that the public can be confident in the governance of the sport."
2018 revision of code of ethics In 2018, FIFA revised its code of ethics to remove corruption as one of the enumerated bases of ethical violations. It retained bribery, misappropriation of funds and manipulation of competitions as offences, but added a
statute of limitation clause that those offences could not be pursued after a ten-year period. == See also ==