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| Monday, June 24, 2002 15:57 EST |
Corruption investigation continues vs. Blatter
[Associated Press]
ZURICH, Switzerland -- A Swiss investigation of FIFA president Sepp Blatter continues despite the withdrawal of a
criminal complaint against him by members of the executive
committee of world soccer's governing body, a prosecutor said
Monday.
"The investigation will be pursued until we decide to terminate
it or file charges,'' said District Attorney Urs Hubmann.
Eleven members of FIFA's 24-man executive committee filed the
complaint in a Zurich court last month on the basis of a document
from FIFA General Secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen alleging corruption
and financial mismanagement.
At an executive committee meeting in Seoul May 31 -- the day
after Blatter was re-elected to a new four-year term as president
by an overwhelming majority -- members agreed to withdraw the
complaint.
But Hubmann told The Associated Press that this had no effect on
the investigation because law enforcement officials are legally
bound to investigate in cases of dereliction of duty. He said
Blatter was being investigated on suspicion of embezzlement and
mismanagement.
He declined to say how long it might take until a decision is
reached.
Zen-Ruffinen alleged that Blatter showered millions of dollars
worth of financial favors on the North and Central American and
Caribbean confederation (CONCACAF) and its president, Jack Warner,
and made unauthorized payments to other soccer officials.
Blatter dismissed most of the allegations and denied any type of
corruption. He said the accusations were part of a campaign to
install African soccer chief Issa Hayatou as FIFA president.
But the former Swiss army colonel did concede paying $100,000 to
Viacheslav Koloskov, the head of the Russian soccer federation, for
executive committee expenses from 1998 to 2000 when Koloskov wasn't
a member of the committee but carried out many official duties.
He also admitted giving $25,000 to Lucien Bouchardeau, a referee
from Niger. But he stressed this was out of his own pocket and was
merely a gesture of personal sympathy because Bouchardeau was
struggling financially.
Zen-Ruffinen charged that Blatter wanted to bribe Bouchardeau to
discredit Somali official Farah Addo, who claimed he was offered
money to vote for Blatter in 1998.
Zen-Ruffinen said FIFA's financial situation was much more
precarious than generally believed and that losses from the ISL
bankruptcy were more than $115.6 million.
After Blatter's reelection to a second four-year term,
Zen-Ruffinen agreed to quit as FIFA general-secretary on July 4
after the World Cup ends.
Blatter insists that FIFA's losses from the collapse of its
marketing partner ISL/ISMM, which held the television rights for
the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals for much of the world, is much
lower than claimed by his opponents.
But his critics argue that FIFA's financial headaches will
explode in the coming years because the organization has borrowed
money from future World Cup revenues to cover existing shortfalls --
a process known as securitization.
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