US authorities are investigating evidence indicating that suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter knew about US$100 million in bribes paid to former members of the soccer body, a BBC report said on Sunday.
The BBC investigation alleges that sports marketing company ISL paid a total of US$100 million to officials, including former FIFA president Joao Havelange and former FIFA executive Ricardo Teixeira.
In return, the company received television and marketing rights during the 1990s, the report said.
Photo: AP
Blatter has maintained he was unaware of the payments, but the BBC said it had seen a letter obtained by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that casts doubt on his denial.
The letter refers to the ISL payments and is alleged to have been written by Havelange, who said that Blatter had “full knowledge of all activities” and was “always apprised” of them.
Blatter was Havelange’s top deputy before taking over from Havelange as FIFA president in 1998.
The BBC said Blatter had declined to respond to their allegations.
Blatter, who was suspended in October for 90 days by FIFA’s ethics committee, is due to stand down in February.
Separate from the reported US probe, Blatter has also become the target of a Swiss criminal investigation over possible mismanagement at FIFA and a US$2 million payment made in 2011 to his would-be successor, UEFA president Michel Platini.
The Swiss criminal probe spurred FIFA’s internal ethics watchdog to launch a further inquiry. FIFA investigators finalized their probe last month, turning evidence over to the ethics committee’s judges, who are to issue a verdict this month.
Platini is implicated in the same probe and investigators have called for a lifetime ban against him, but the requested punishment against Blatter is not yet known. US prosecutors are investigating several top soccer officials in a quest to root out graft at FIFA.
Late last week, 16 officials were charged over corruption in what the US Department of Justice called an “outrageous” betrayal of trust by those who govern world soccer’s governing body.
The most recent charges included the pre-dawn arrests of two FIFA vice presidents at a luxury hotel in Zurich, Switzerland.
While eight people implicated in US investigations have already pleaded guilty, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch has said there remain 27 defendants from within global soccer alleged to have taken more than US$200 million in bribes and kickbacks over decades.
Fallen FIFA executive Jack Warner has accused the US of trying to “take over” FIFA with its anti-corruption investigations, alleging that the nation is seeking to strip Qatar and Russia of their upcoming FIFA World Cups.
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