I just realised that the full transcript of this Panorama programme at the link below. It is a long, but good read:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/7061626.stm
JEREMY VINE: Hello I'm Jeremy Vine and this is Panorama. Tonight,
the real winners in world football, and the losers. ANDREW JENNINGS: How much?!
SHAKA HISLOP: Less than £500 a man.... JENNINGS: We played the heritage card last time we bid, but videos don't win world cups.
ALAN TOMLINSON, Professor of Sport
At the heart of FIFA's big decisions are lots of interests of individuals and groups from different parts of the world, and it's not always the "good of the game " ....JENNINGS: These are the stars of the game. But these are the men with the power. That decision rests with them.
Some have been accused of pocketing bribes, their
boss of bosses won power in a dodgy election, and tonight we'll hear how
another was branded a liar by a judge, and this is their fortress. ...............
Two years ago the police raided its offices as part of a corruption investigation. JENNINGS: Good morning
President Blatter. Why did FIFA repay the ISL bribes? Did you ever take bribes from ISL? JENNINGS:
Football's rulers have a credibility problem. But
who cares? After all, FIFA have been putting on the greatest sports show on earth for years without fail ? the World Cup. So does it really matter what some of them get up to? To some people it does. ......................
John McBeth. He broke a football taboo and spoke frankly about FIFA to journalists, just before taking up his appointment. JOHN McBETH, President, Scottish FA 2003-07; ........ they asked ethically could I possibly be taking up a job with FIFA with when there was so much corruption in the place....
JENNINGS: You also said if you shook hands with some members of the FIFA Executive Committee you count your fingers afterwards. What did you mean by that? McBETH: There were one or two people on that Executive Committee that I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them... JENNINGS: Not all the men who run football are tainted by allegations ? but many are. Last year Panorama was told that
former FIFA President Joao Havelange had taken at least one big bribe ...................
Vote rigging helped Sep Blatter become FIFA President in 1998. The man casting the vote for Haiti was someone else, an aide to Vice President Jack Warner. He could lose his chance to host the cup if FIFA decides to open the bidding to all.
JENNINGS: It means trying to do deals with the voting blocks and individual voters. And sometimes getting out the check book and delivering what the voters ask for. Jack Warner, Soccer boss of the Caribbean and Central and North America controls three votes, just as he did for the 2006 vote. Did Jack Warner do well out of the English bid?
TOMLINSON:
Jack Warner did very well, he's a very, very experienced operator in this world and what he got out of the English bid was forms of football development support and money and expertise and so on, and some business were the centre of excellence that he's located in Trinidad. But this is something that was paid for essentially by FIFA, moneys that Jack Warner himself controls with his own family and runs it like a personal business. JENNINGS: ..........
you get demands to play unwanted friendlies against the national teams of some voters. Saudi Arabia's vote demanded a game at Wembley. We had to say yes. We had to pull Manchester United out of the FA Cup and send them off to play in a FIFA competition in Brazil. .....
JENNINGS:
......Corruption at FIFA is a taboo topic. ........
JENNINGS: Did you have any personal experience in your time as Chairman of the Scottish Football Association of
funny goings on involving senior FIFA people? McBETH:
Yes, well it depends how you interpret it. I mean
Jack Warner came across to Scotland to play Trinidad and Tobago came to play Scotland at Hibernian's ground, in Easter Road in Edinburgh, and after the game he asked me to make a cheque out to his personal account for the game. I said we don't do that, it should go to the Association. I then found out later that he had approached several of the other staff in my organisation... JENNINGS: Your Scottish officials.
McBETH: Yeah, to do exactly the same thing. But of course when I got back to Hamden
I instructed our accountant to send it to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association and if they owed him money then they could pay it to him. The best I could put on there was that he was acting as an agent for Trinidad and Tobago and... JENNINGS: And did you ever act as an agent for Scottish football when you were its Chairman?
McBETH: Never, never, that would never happen.
JENNINGS: No response to us from
Mr Warner. His votes have been vital in keeping the boss, Sepp Blatter in power. With John McBeth on FIFA's Executive Committee some of its members might have had a problem.
McBETH: I hoped that I would, if I'd come across corruption, I would have tried to stop it, and if I couldn't stop it, I would have to expose it.
JENNINGS: How do you think that went down in Zurich?
McBETH: Well I don't think they liked it too much.
JENNINGS: Mr Warner, good morning. Welcome to Zurich.
No wonder,
Jack Warner has got a track record for breaching FIFA's ethics rules. JENNINGS: Can we ask you yet again, how much profit did you make selling World Cup tickets this year?
Last year FIFA's ethics committee found him guilty of touting thousands of World Cup tickets to his family travel company in Trinidad. McBeth managed to get hold of a copy of the meeting's deliberations. McBETH: I came to the
conclusion at the end of it that he was as guilty as sin. I then realised that that
ethics committee reported to the Executive Committee, and as far as I could see, the Executive Committee turned round and said Mr Warner has been working under a delusion... a misunderstanding for the last 15 years and they gave a slap on the wrist.
JENNINGS: Why would you spit on me?
WARNER: Because you're garbage. JENNINGS:
Last year FIFA abolished the Ethics Committee but found Jack Warner guilty. They set up a new one to enforce a code of ethics. It bans FIFA officials from taking bribes. They must be honest at all times. It says they mustn't abuse their position for personal gain, and avoid any conflict of interest between their work for FIFA and their own personal business.
The man in charge? Our own Seb Coe. I went to Trinidad to meet a man who had high hopes of his fellow athlete.
Shaka Hislop has played in goal for Reading, New Castle and West Ham. Last year he played for Trinidad and Tobago in the World Cup. They were national heroes, but what happened to the money? SHAKA HISLOP, Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Squad,Well before the World Cup we negotiated with Jack Warner for a percentage of the commercial revenues generated as a result of our taking part in the World Cup. When we got back we were told that that amassed less than £500 a man.
JENNINGS: How much?!!!
HISLOP: Less than £500 a man. JENNINGS: Warner said there was only 22 million Trinidad dollars to share out. The players claim the figure is more than 200 million. HISLOP: We wanted to have somebody independent have a look at the books and tell us whether those figures were right or wrong, which of course
Mr Warner and the TTFF flatly refused. So
we had to hire a lawyer and initiate court proceedings. JENNINGS:
What did Jack Warner say about you when he heard that you'd hired lawyers to fight your case?
HISLOP: Well
we were immediately labelled as a ?mercenary few', he accused us of being greedy, of holding the TTFF to ransom and effectively we were ruled out of any future participation in international football. JENNINGS:
The blacklisted players were prevented from playing in the regions equivalent of the European Championship, CONCACAF's Gold Cup. What is the
effect on your colleagues, your fellow players?
HISLOP: Well certainly
footballers have a very short career and of course the Gold Cup is the marked event of the region, and second only to the World Cup for players of this region to showcase their talents to other clubs, to scouts, to managers in an effort to advance their own careers, and the also were robbed, robbed of that right.
To read the statements in response to this investigation visit bbc.co.uk/panorama
JENNINGS:
Warner now says he'll lift the ban on them. Could this be a case for the man fronting FIFA's new improved ethics committee? .....
JUDGE: Mr Blazer's testimony was generally without credibility based on his attitude and demeanour and on his evasive answers on cross-examination.
JENNINGS:
So did MasterCard get fair play from FIFA? The judge agreed Jerome Valcke and others had lied and lied again. FIFA had breached its contract with MasterCard. With the court's judgment in my hand I went to Switzerland, home of FIFA, to talk to legal expert Dr Marco Balmelli. He specializes in commercial and criminal law and is a member of the Basel Institute of Governance which campaigns for ethical standards in business.
FIFA launched an appeal, got the case referred back to the courts in New York, but then thought better of it. Rather than face another beating from the judge,
Blatter settled the case with MasterCard and paid them 90 million dollars to go away. But that isn't the end of the affair. During the trial an even more serious allegation surfaced.
BALMELLI: They alleged
FIFA having falsified documents and deceived the court. JENNINGS: If these
documents are falsified, what is the implication?
BALMELLI: Then
it's a crime in Switzerland, it's a serious crime with a
sentence up to five years. JENNINGS: Five years in jail?
BALMELLI: Mmm hm.
JENNINGS:
If England do bid to host the World Cup, do you think they'll get fair play from FIFA? JENNINGS:
Could be a waste of time without FIFA being cleaned up first. JENNINGS:
What hope then for FIFA policing itself and ensuring fair play ..... Shaka Hislop had similar questions.
SHAKA HISLOP: We wrote to FIFA asking them to refer to the Ethics Committee because we felt we'd done nothing wrong. JENNINGS:
Why the Ethics Committee? HISLOP: Because we felt we certainly had broken no rules and were being heavily punished for it.
JENNINGS: And
is your complaint going to the Ethics Committee? HISLOP:
No, they wrote back to us and said that it was an in-house problem and that Mr Warner would have to decide on whether he broke any rules. JENNINGS: And what about the MasterCard allegations?
Dr MARCO BALMELLI, Basel Institute on Governance It's certainly very serious and it's a prime example for an Ethic Committee to look into. JENNINGS: They should be taking it up?
BALMELLI: Of course, I hope they already did.
JENNINGS: And if they don't
BALMELLI: Then it's a question...
is it only a farce, or
is it a real Ethics Committee? HISLOP: We are the footballers, we are the ones who step over the white line, and FIFA were saying that all of a sudden the administrators had become far more important than the players.
JENNINGS: Do you have any rights?
HISLOP: I certainly believe so, and I certainly feel that Seb Coe, as an ex-athlete would understand that. He would understand the pressures that athletes face. He would understand how helpless we feel when faced with the almighty administrator......