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The spectacular scale of greed at the top of Fifa was revealed on Friday when lawyers said that three high-ranking former officials – Sepp Blatter, Jérôme Valcke and Markus Kattner – had secretly given themselves pay rises and massive World Cup bonuses totalling 79m Swiss francs (£55m).
The lawyers acting for Fifa said the contracted payments were made during the officials’ last five years in office. They appeared to violate Swiss law. Evidence will now be given to the US justice department and to Swiss federal prosecutors who are investigating the financial scandal engulfing the world football body.
“The evidence appears to reveal a coordinated effort by three former top officials of Fifa to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totalling more than 79m Swiss francs in just the last five years,” said Bill Burck of Quinn Emanuel, the US law firm retained by Fifa during its corruption crisis.
Fifa revealed details of the contracts of its former president Blatter, former secretary general Valcke and former finance director Kattner one day after police raided its offices to seize evidence for the Swiss investigation. It is understood Blatter received £23.3m, Valcke £22.9m and Kattner £9.5m.
[...]
In a statement, Blatter’s US-based lawyer said on Friday the former Fifa chief’s compensation payments were “proper, fair and in line with the heads of major professional sports leagues around the world”.
The secret payments are another lurid episode from a Blatter era now synonymous with venality. They come at a time when Fifa’s new president, Gianni Infantino, is scrambling to show his administration marks a fresh start for an organisation mired in scandal from the grubby regime run by his predecessor.
Infantino’s reformist credentials were dented in April when he appeared in the Panama Papers leak. This week the German newspaper Die Welt reported he had ordered the destruction of the minutes of a Fifa executive committee meeting, a claim Infantino denied.
On Friday Fifa gave details for the first time of the “tens of millions of dollars” paid to the three individuals. Fifa said documents seized in the raid “raised serious questions about the way a series of problematic contract amendments ... were approved”.
It said: “These amendments resulted in massive payouts – amounting to tens of millions of dollars – to the former Fifa officials in the form of salaries and bonuses between the years 2011 and 2015.”
Put together, the new documents and evidence appeared to reveal “a coordinated effort” by the top officials to enrich themselves, Fifa said. Several of the amendments to contracts which came into effect on the same day were described as “very ominous”.
They included new eight-and-a-half year contract extensions given to both Valcke and Kattner, shortly before Fifa’s May 2011 presidential election. At the time it was unclear if Blatter would be re-elected or his rival Mohamed bin Hammam would get the job.
Their contracts were extended until 2019, with “big increases in base salaries and bonuses” and guaranteed severance payments. They amounted to 17.5m Swiss francs (£12.2m) and 9.8m Swiss francs to Valcke and Kattner respectively in the case that their contracts were terminated, which was likely if Blatter lost.
Fifa also agreed to pay all their legal fees. These arrangements probably violated Swiss law, Fifa said.
Additionally, the three officials pocketed 23m Swiss francs as “special bonuses” awarded four months after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The bonuses were given even though they were not mentioned in any contract.
Valcke and Kattner received a further 14m Swiss francs in bonuses for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. They got another payment of 15.5m Swiss francs in June 2014 for the controversial 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Fifa highlighted a profound conflict of interest at the heart of world football. It noted that “the people who signed the contracts were in principle also the ones that approved them”. Kattner and other officials simply instructed Fifa’s payroll and HR departments “how much should be paid out and to whom”. These departments reported directly to Kattner.
[...]
Even more astonishing, the committee made another controversial payment to Kattner, days after the US Department of Justice arrested several top Fifa officials at the Baur-au-Lac hotel in Zurich. The high-profile raid in May 2015 – which saw suspects bundled out of the hotel, screened by a blanket – came two days before Fifa’s presidential election.
Blatter was duly re-elected. The following day the committee met and gave Kattner an additional four-year extension on his contract, pushing his leave date from 2019 to the end of 2023. That meant that if he was dismissed from Fifa, Kattner would pocket eight years of future salary and bonus payments worth 9m Swiss francs (£6.3m).
With dry understatement, Fifa said that the timing of the deal was “noteworthy”, against a high-profile backdrop of “widespread fraud and corruption”.
What do you expect from an organisation that literally has two giant balls in its logo?
I saw somewhere recently a write-up about reasons why the US drew horribly in their recent friendlies, including in Kansas City where they've normally done extremely well.
The conclusion seems to be that charging too much money for inconsequential games against teams people don't care about isn't the best idea. This wasn't what I read, but same conclusion for why WC qualifier attendance is so poor. They're being greedy with the ticket prices.
Meanwhile, the women played to a sold out stadium last night. I expect tickets were far less expensive.
Don't worry. I have a sense Klinsmann is going to be too stupid to start Darlington Nagbe, in which case the game is going to be boring until Darlington is subbed on.
Also I didn't realize until this week the game is being played right next to my mom's house. Coulda doubled up the trip home with international soccer, but alas I suck at planning.
Don't worry. I have a sense Klinsmann is going to be too stupid to start Darlington Nagbe, in which case the game is going to be boring until Darlington is subbed on.
Also I didn't realize until this week the game is being played right next to my mom's house. Coulda doubled up the trip home with international soccer, but alas I suck at planning.
Australia beat Greece 1-0 in the first of two friendlies. Absolutely dominated the game but took until the 93rd to score. Really not good enough in the final third.
Gonna be interesting to see what happens keeper-wise for Greece in the second. They only brought two keepers over with them and one cracked some ribs this game.
Posts
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Then Pep becomes available.
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To be fair, the next two years will be pretty great. The last one? Not so much.
Also delighted for Rashford
Good day of football
http://i.imgur.com/rdF5fPd.gif
And that was the second time Pepe tried to pull that shit.
What do you expect from an organisation that literally has two giant balls in its logo?
Do not engage the Watermelons.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, if it happens.
Shots fired!
Do not engage the Watermelons.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
The conclusion seems to be that charging too much money for inconsequential games against teams people don't care about isn't the best idea. This wasn't what I read, but same conclusion for why WC qualifier attendance is so poor. They're being greedy with the ticket prices.
Meanwhile, the women played to a sold out stadium last night. I expect tickets were far less expensive.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Don't worry. I have a sense Klinsmann is going to be too stupid to start Darlington Nagbe, in which case the game is going to be boring until Darlington is subbed on.
Also I didn't realize until this week the game is being played right next to my mom's house. Coulda doubled up the trip home with international soccer, but alas I suck at planning.
So anyway, find that Russian stream...
lolfoxsports
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Oh.
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Are you hearing Brad Friedel? Or someone else.
Friedel is going embarrassingly homer in trying to talk himself out of an obvious hand ball. I have a feeling Alexi Lalas is about to be worse.
I feel they're much more informative.
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Someone else I think. Not sure who it is.
edit: he was trying to claim it as having come of the shoulder despite it deflecting downward and his hand recoiling from the contact.
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Bold strategy, Cotton.
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At the 65th minute!
Gonna be interesting to see what happens keeper-wise for Greece in the second. They only brought two keepers over with them and one cracked some ribs this game.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Do not engage the Watermelons.