Blatter & Havelange named in Swiss
bribes trial
And now we wait . . .
Verdicts are promised on July 2. It might be a shame if all defendants go to jail. Five of the six were victims of parasitical, lying senior sports officials. Maybe Jean-Marie Weber should be locked up because nobody accepts there is anything ‘honourable’ in his refusing to name the bribe-takers in blazers. We hear the stories of who is funding him now and the large bag of cash waiting of his release if he is incarcerated.
And we also note that he appears to have stolen SF90,000 for himself.
Weber collaborated in ISL paying sports federations less than sports were worth so that bribes could be kicked back. Weber and the men he protects are enemies of sport.
As the first stage of the trial ended in mid-March FIFA executive members were flying into Zurich for their first meeting of the year. But tragedy had struck Nicolas Leoz – he needed some unspecified surgery - and he wouldn’t be coming. The surgery was brilliant because his backbone implant was so successful that within days he was attending official FIFA meetings in Latin America.
At his press conference after the ExCo meetings Blatter fended off questions saying he can’t possible comment until after the verdict. That’s nonsense. There’s nothing to stop him commenting on the documented evidence of Leoz taking money (Blatter has known since at least September 2006 that Leoz would be named in court), the money going to the company owned by Havelange and Teixeira – and Malms’ electrifying claim that both Blatter and Havelange forced ISL to keep Weber in place to ensure bribes were delivered on time.
Yet again, too many in the media have let Blatter dodge corruption issues at FIFA.
What we heard in Zug should provide plenty of work for Lord Sebastian Coe and his FIFA Ethics Committee. Will he summon his members into emergency session, interrogate Blatter and Havelange and recommend to the Executive Committee that these two rogues are hounded out of the world game? Along with the rest of the gang?
Don’t hold your breath.
While Coe stands back, the splendid Investigating Magistrate Thomas Hildbrand is still pursuing his second investigation, into who repaid 2.5 million francs of the bribes to the liquidator of the ISL company. He’s using evidence he unearthed in the investigation that brought the ISL Six to the Zug court and again when he raided FIFA HQ in November 2005.
On December 19 the federal Appeal Court in Bellinzona threw out attempts by Blatter’s lawyers to get him removed from the case. More patience.
Video of the courtroom is at:
http://uk.youtube.com/user/InsideSport
Read the Bill of Indictment in German in Word Format
Download Word document [1.8MB File] or a compressed version:
PC users: zip file [300KB] / Mac users: StuffIt sitx file [188KB]
The bribes evidence is Section 12, pages 146 - 156