Tuesday 30 April 2013

Joao Havelange

         
  Fifa granted International Sport and Leisure (ISL) exclusive rights to market World Cup tournaments to some of the world's biggest brands. ISL also received millions more from negotiating television broadcast rights.It said: "It is certain that not inconsiderable amounts were channelled to former Fifa president Havelange and to his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira as well as to Dr Nicolas Leoz, whereby there is no indication that any form of service was given in return by them.The company collapsed with huge debts in 2001 and its arrangement with Fifa was subsequently investigated by Swiss authorities.These payments were apparently made via front companies in order to cover up the true recipient and are to be qualified as 'commissions', known today as 'bribes'.Fifa was eventually forced by the Swiss supreme court to release documents relating to the case after it repeatedly attempted to block the release of the confidential papers.The report states that Havelange and Teixeira were "morally and ethically reproachable" for accepting the money.It followed a report by the BBC's Panorama programme in 2010 that alleged three senior Fifa officials took bribes from Swiss-based ISL in the 1990s.The report added: "There are also no indications whatsoever that President Blatter was responsible for a cash flow to Havelange, Teixeira or Leoz, or that that he himself received any payments from the ISL Group, even in the form of hidden kickback payments.Fifa president Sepp Blatter announced in July 2012 that Fifa's new ethics committee would be looking at the bribery allegations. That investigation resulted in the release of Tuesday's report.

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