FIFA official named in bribe investigation

Swiss magistrates have accused a FIFA official of receiving bribes, something that resulted from an investigation into the collapse of ISMM, a former FIFA marketing partner.

Nicolás Leoz, a FIFA executive committee member and long-serving president of the South American football confederation CONMEBOL, allegedly received bribes totaling GBP 90,000 in two separate payments in January and May 2000.

The money was paid by an entity linked to ISMM, which folded in 2001.

Leoz expressed surprise when he was contacted by The Guardian, and said he had no connection with the companies in question.

"Nicolás Leoz in 50 years has never had any problem of any kind," read a statement from CONMEBOL. "He is very surprised by your questions. (We have) never been in contact with the enterprises mentioned in these questions."

The claim comes in a Swiss magistrate's report relating to the collapse of ISMM, which looked after distribution of non-US and non-Europe TV rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Related company ISL Worldwide administered global distribution of marketing licences for the two competitions.

The legal document refers to payments made between 1999 and early 2001 from a Liechtenstein bank account in the name of Sunbow SA, an entity said to have been founded in 1997 in the offshore finance centre of the British Virgin Islands.

The document states that Sunbow was "100 percent held by the Nunca foundation, which in turn can be characterised as a financial/commercial unit of ISMM AG."

Focusing on GBP 7.75million for "payments for the acquisition of rights", the document states that these payments "are inducements (bribes) to third parties having a direct or indirect relationship to agreements negotiated by the ISMM group."

The Swiss investigators said the payments to Leoz are "qualification of these payments as bribes is based on the statements made by Jean-Marie Weber himself ... and statements made by Hans-Peter Weber."

Most of the payments are not believed to be football-related. It has been reported that the ISL liquidator has said no Swiss nationals were among football officials who took bribes from ISL, which would leave FIFA president Sepp Blatter cleared.

ISMM's collapse, which came after it agreed to pay the ATP men's tennis tour GBP 800,000 for its media rights, shook FIFA during the final preparations for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. It also sparked allegations that football officials had taken bribes from ISL.

FIFA said it was not served with a copy of the document and therefore could not comment.

It appears that some of the money might have been repaid. The document notes that on March 17 2004, "the account of ISL Worldwide in liquidation was credited with SFr2.5m".

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.