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« on: December 07, 2011, 03:40:04 PM »
FBI launches investigation into World Cup 'dirty tricks’ campaign.
By Claire Newell and Paul Kelso (Telegraph).
Investigators from the FBI have interviewed members of England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid as part of an investigation by the American law-enforcement agency into alleged corruption, Telegraph Sport can reveal.
The interviews, conducted in the last month, are part of an FBI inquiry into allegations arising from the World Cup bidding process a year ago, and the Fifa presidential election in June.
Investigators claim to have “really great intelligence” of malpractice and came to London last month to interview people present in Zurich at the time of the World Cup vote.
It is understood that the FBI has “substantial evidence” of outside organisations attempting to hack the email accounts of the United States bid for the 2022 tournament, and believe the English bid may have also been affected.
The FBI is understood to have asked England 2018 officials, who are not under suspicion, if they were aware of dirty tricks or corruption in the World Cup bidding campaign.
The FBI is also understood to have asked questions relating to potential offences arising from the alleged bribery of Caribbean football officials by Mohammed Bin Hammam, who stood against Sepp Blatter for the Fifa presidency.
Bin Hammam has been banned for life by Fifa after being found to have offered $40,000 (£25,000) bribes to Caribbean football officials three weeks before the election.
It is suspected that the currency offered to the officials was transported through US borders, a potential offence if it was undeclared.
Jack Warner, former Fifa vice president and president of the Caribbean Football Union, resigned from all football posts after an in initial Fifa inquiry report found “compelling” evidence that he conspired with Bin Hammam to make the payments.
Last Friday was the first anniversary of the World Cup election, in which England were humiliated, receiving just one vote in addition to that of their own Fifa representative Geoff Thompson.
The FBI’s interest in the World Cup election is thought to be linked to an ongoing investigation into payments made to Chuck Blazer, the Fifa executive committee member who first revealed the bribery allegations against Bin Hammam and Warner.
In his role as general secretary of the Concacaf confederation Blazer received commission payments from Concacaf accounts totalling more than $500,000 (£320,000), some of which were linked to television contracts.
Some of the money was paid into an account in the Cayman Islands, with the most recent payment of $250,000 (£160,000) made in March this year and paid into an account in the Bahamas.
The payments were detailed in accounts and letters sent to the FBI by British journalist Andrew Jennings. In August Reuters reported that the payments were being reviewed by a New York-based FBI squad assigned to investigate “Eurasian organised crime”.
Blazer has not denied receiving the payments but said at the time: “All of my transactions have been legally and properly done, in compliance with the various laws of the applicable jurisdictions based on the nature of the transaction.”
The FBI’s investigation is proceeding with assistance from Fifa, whose head of security Chris Eaton is due to meet with them shortly in New York to discuss progress.
Since the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup competitions to Russia and Qatar there have been numerous accusations of corruption.
Even before the vote, in October last year, two of Fifa’s 24-man executive committee members were suspended after being exposed discussing selling their votes.
As well as Blazer and Warner, a further 16 Caribbean football officials have been sanctioned for their involvement in the Trinidad bribes meeting.
Another executive committee member, Worawi Makudi of Thailand, is also facing investigation by Fifa over allegations that money from Fifa’s GOAL development project was used to build facilities on land owned by him.
Makudi, who travelled to the Trinidad meeting with Bin Hammam, says that he gifted the land to the Thai FA and that there has been no wrongdoing. He has sent documents clarifying the ownership situation to Fifa, which will review them before deciding whether he will face an investigation by Fifa’s ethics committee.
Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe and member of the culture, media and sport select committee, welcomed the FBI’s interest:
“I think it’s good that government agencies which have responsibility for law enforcement take the allegations very seriously and are investigating them properly.
“Fifa executives have to abide by international law and if they break those laws they should be investigated by any appropriate authority. It puts in stark comparison the arrogance of the Fifa committee who believe there is nothing to investigate at all and shows there are maybe lots of issues which should have been looked at more by Fifa themselves.”
The corruption allegations have destroyed Fifa’s reputation and left Blatter scrambling to introduce a reform programme that salvages some credibility for the organisation he has led for the last 13 years.
In October Blatter announced a reform programme but his plans have already begun to unravel. Last week Transparency International, the body that helped draw up the reforms, withdrew saying it no longer had faith in the independence of the process.
And yesterday Blatter said he was postponing plans to publish Swiss court papers that detail bribes received by Fifa officials from the collapsed sports rights and marketing agency ISL.
Fifa has been party to suppressing the documents since the court action against the officials, named by the BBC as former Fifa president Joao Havelange and executive committee members Ricardo Teixeira, was suspended last summer after they repaid more than £3 million in bribes.
Blatter had planned to publish the documents following an executive committee meeting on Dec 17, but yesterday publication was delayed because of legal objections from one of the parties.
“It was my strong will to make the ISL file fully transparent [on Dec 17]. I have now been advised that as a result of the objection of a third party to such transparency it will take more time to overcome the respective legal hurdles,” he said.
“This does not change my stance at all. I remain fully committed to publishing the files as soon as possible as an important part of my many reform plans for Fifa, which include handling the past as well as preparing the future structure of the organisation.”
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. Really, are you serious!? There is only one player from T&T playing in Belgium, none in Italy, and zilch in Portugal. Plus how many coaches from T&T are plying their trade in those countries? MLS and America has it's flaws, but give Jack its jacket 
, there are more T&T players and coaches able to find wuk in the US than the countries you think give more respect to T&T. 
