Category: News
Date: 11.06.2006
Printable version
In a report for Panorama - The Beautiful Bung - Corruption and the World Cup - veteran reporter Andrew Jennings reveals the serious allegations and evidence that has triggered a major investigation by the Swiss authorities.
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Serious allegations of bungs, sleaze and vote-rigging by some of the men running the World Cup will be broadcast by Panorama tonight (Sunday 11 June 2006) on 91Èȱ¬ ONE at 10.15pm.
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Even as FIFA officials secure the best seats in German stadiums, they know that Switzerland's investigating Magistrate Thomas Hildbrand is closing in on some of them.
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In the programme Jennings is pushed by a FIFA vice-president for asking him how much profit he plans to make from selling World Cup tickets this year.
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Then he is banned from FIFA headquarters for asking president Sepp Blatter what he knows about kickbacks to senior officials from a company seeking lucrative contracts.
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The programme reveals that over a million pounds worth of bribes have secretly been repaid. Not by the officials who received the kickbacks - but, according to a secret court judgement, by FIFA itself.
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Magistrate Hildbrand must decide if this broke Swiss law. If it did, some of the most senior FIFA officials could face jail.
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During his investigation Jennings travels from the Swiss Alps to the beaches of the Caribbean.
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A senior executive from ISL, the former marketing company that paid the bribes, speaks anonymously to Jennings, revealing that 'bungs' were paid systematically - frequently through offshore bank accounts - over a 20-year period.
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The payments increased during negotiations for World Cup contracts. The executive estimates that tens of millions of pounds in bribes were paid.
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The programme is the culmination of nearly six years' research by Jennings.
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His first big breakthrough came in July 2001 when he quizzed liquidator Thomas Bauer of Ernst & Young, appointed to unravel the affairs of the ISL company after it plunged into a spectacular bankruptcy.
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Bauer told Jennings: "I've found football related payments from ISL. Some are very large, in excess of one million francs. I've written to the recipients asking them to return the money."
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Bauer decided that the bribes were company assets and should be reclaimed for the creditors.
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A secret deal was brokered by a lawyer who has acted for FIFA to protect the identity of those who repaid the money.
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Magistrate Hildbrand, already probing allegations of embezzlement of FIFA money by the ISL executives, has discovered that the last bribe was paid in January 2001, even as ISL went bust.
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Last November the police raided FIFA House and searched the office of Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, and his General Secretary Urs Linsi.
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The authorities confirm their inquiries are continuing.
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Jennings also investigates the politics inside FIFA, Sepp Blatter and how vote-rigging helped put him in power .
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President Blatter has declined to grant Panorama an interview - and denies all the allegations.
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Jennings has written several books about corruption in world sport. Earlier this year he published FOUL!- about FIFA.
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