Jean-Marie Weber (aka The Bagman) and Blatter:
An enriching relationship

Havelange, The Bagman and Blatter:
What’s their dirty secret?

The Bagman, a player and Blatter

Thank you Bagman – Sepp

The things they say...

‘Neither FIFA nor its President have anything to hide, nor do they wish to.’

Blatter press release, 28 January, 2003

BBC Panorama Reporter Andy Davies:

‘A one million franc bribe … is it not correct that Mr Blatter asked that it be moved to the FIFA official who was named on the payment slip?’

FIFA Director of Communications Markus Siegler:

‘If you do not stop now, then we call the security and we put you out.’

FIFA Press conference, Zurich, Tuesday, 11 April 2006

‘I am deputy chairman of the finance committee of FIFA. I oversee a budget of US$2 billion and I have never seen one iota of corruption.’

Jack Warner, Trinidad Express 12 December 2004

‘Lying and deception and bad faith are standard operating procedure at FIFA.’

Adam C. Silverstein, a lawyer for MasterCard in their successful action against FIFA, New York, December 1, 2006

‘I do not believe a Jew can ever be a referee at that level (Argentine Premier League) because it’s hard work and, you know, Jews don’t like hard work.’

FIFA senior vice-president and chair of Finance Committee, Julio Grondona, 5 July 2003. Buenos Aires

‘FIFA is a healthy, clean and transparent organisation with nothing to hide. There is huge public interest in FIFA, therefore we have to be as transparent as possible. We will try to communicate in a more open way so the world can believe us and be proud of their federation.’

FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi, January 2003, on fifa.com

Happy Days With the Bagman

Hardly a day went by without the Bagman making one of his friends in the sports world happy. Bagman’s colleagues remember the gifts – one official got a new Mercedes car for his birthday – as well as the cash or bank transfers.

The Bagman, aka Jean-Marie Weber, was personal assistant to Horst Dassler at the ISL company. When the boss died suddenly in 1987, Bagman was the only one who knew who had to be paid – and how much they demanded. If you believe the other managers at ISL, they had no idea who was being bribed.

To a few of us reporters, standing to one side with our notebooks and pens, it was obvious. We watched other sports marketing companies squeezed out by no-tender bidding. You could smell the corruption.

The Bagman was everywhere, at FIFA, at UEFA, at CAF, the African Confederation. Despite the money owed to FIFA and the Zug court case disclosures - Weber still is a favourite at CAF – and you might wonder why?

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