ZURICH—Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s lawyer says he will co-operate with Swiss authorities who are conducting a criminal investigation into corruption in the world football governing body.
But in giving the commitment, attorney Richard Cullen said “certainly no mismanagement occurred” in his client’s running of Fifa.
The latest allegations also threaten UEFA president Michel Platini, Blatter’s one-time protege and favourite to succeed him in February’s election. Platini was yesterday questioned as a witness about taking a “disloyal payment” from Blatter of two million Swiss francs (US$2.04 million) of Fifa money in February 2011.
At the time, Platini was already tipped as a future Fifa leader though unlikely to run against Blatter in that year’s presidential election—instead backing the incumbent against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar. Blatter was re-elected in May 2011 after Bin Hammam withdrew amid bribery allegations.
According to Switzerland’s attorney general, the money was supposedly paid nine years later for Platini’s work as Blatter’s football adviser at Fifa from 1999 to 2002.
Under Swiss law, a payment is classified disloyal if it is against the best interests of the employer—in this case Fifa.
Platini said in a statement issued by UEFA that he was entitled to receive the money, but did not address the apparent nine-year wait for payment.
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The American probe rocked Fifa on May 27, when senior officials suspected of bribery and racketeering were arrested in dawn raids at a luxury Zurich hotel two days before Blatter’s re-election. Blatter is a stated target of that case but has always denied being corrupt, blaming individuals who are outside of Fifa’s control
But the Swiss allegations suggest authorities suspect Blatter of criminal mismanagement of Fifa money to shore up his own power base—political enrichment—if not taking money himself.
Blatter is the first person publicly revealed to be formally quizzed as a suspect in the Swiss case, which Fifa instigated last November when it complained about possible money laundering in the 2018-2022 World Cup bidding contests won by Russia and Qatar.
Yesterday’s allegations also relate to undervalued World Cup broadcasting contracts for the Caribbean that Blatter agreed to with disgraced former Fifa vice president Jack Warner in 2005.
Warner, who was a long-time Fifa power broker supporting Blatter at elections, was indicted in the wide-ranging US case in May and is still fighting extradition in T&T. (AP)