The documents that FIFA doesn’t want
fans to read
Guarantee Number 1: Visa and Entry Procedures
These demands - that a corrupt organisation in Zurich must be given secret intelligence information on suspected terrorists and other undesirables - have angered security officials.
# Entry visas and exit permits shall be issued unconditionally and without any restriction and, where issuance of formal visas or permits is not required, the right to entry to and exit (from the Netherlands), shall be granted unconditionally and without any restriction.
# Persons wishing to attend the Competitions and/or Events will not be denied entry visas or entry without satisfying FIFA that important reasons exist.
Guarantee Number 2: Work Permits
Many will be shocked that a Labour government secretly agreed with FIFA’s demand that laws protecting workers’ rights should be trampled on. This would breach UK and EU laws and binding agreements between workers and employers.
# Any existing labour legislation (such as limitations on working hours or the use of non-trade union labour) which could restrict any of the above persons from performing their Competitions and/or Events related duties or activities in full shall be suspended in relation to the individuals outlined above.
Guarantee Number 3: Tax Exemptions
The list of demands at Section B, page 4, are astonishing. One Dutch tax expert described them as ‘FIFA setting up its own tax haven’ in the winning country. FIFA appears indifferent to the reality that it would be illegal, and thus impossible, for EU-member countries like England, Holland, Belgium, Portugal and Spain to grant Herr Blatter the concessions he wants.
It is unlikely that Mr Putin’s Russia would have any problem agreeing these demands. Were they designed to make sure that only Russia could win 2018 hosting rights?
Similarly, in the contest for 2022 it is unlikely that democratic countries like Australia, America, Korea and Japan could grant these concessions. Only Qatar could.
Guarantee Number 4: Safety and Security
These demands simply cannot be costed so far in advance. And FIFA, which walks away with its untaxed profits, refuses to pay for security around and inside the venues.
Guarantee Number 5: Bank & Foreign Exchange Operations
These demands raise worries that unscrupulous members of the ‘FIFA Family’ could use the World Cup to launder the proceeds of crime.
Guarantee Number 6: Protection and Exploitation of Commercial Rights
A lot of detail giving exceptional rights to FIFA’s sponsors – or ‘partners’ as they prefer us to call them. The most worrying part may be the demand that police and local officials must be diverted from normal duties, to enforce sponsors’ rights.
Guarantee Number 7: Telecommunication, Information Technology
There are concerns that the Government – while granting huge concessions to FIFA’s sponsors – must if necessary, fund any telecommunications that the private sector can’t or won’t provide.
Guarantee Number 8: Legal Issues and indemnification
This is potentially the most interesting – and explosive - document. The Dutch Government, while bending over backwards, inserted some change to the Guarantees – mainly because FIFA’s demands were illegal or unacceptable to the Dutch people. We have not been told what the British government did.
It should be studied carefully and read as a commentary on the preceding seven Guarantees.
continued . . .