Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Will attacks Blatter for making Fifa 'insolvent'

Martyn Ziegler
Tuesday 28 May 2002 00:00 BST
Comments

New allegations concerning the involvement of the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, in corruption and financial mismanagement surfaced here yesterday as the campaign for the presidential election of football's world governing body, which takes place tomorrow, entered its final stages.

In a letter to all national associations sent yesterday, Scotland's Fifa vice-president, David Will, said that Fifa has lost £215m over the last four years and is on the verge of bankruptcy. At today's extraordinary congress of Fifa, Wills will allege that a report due to be given by Blatter about Fifa's finances – the so-called "Yellow Book" – is seriously flawed. There have also been accusations by Blatter's opponents that last month the president paid the former Camer- oon striker Roger Milla £11,000 to endorse his re-election.

Blatter is standing against Issa Hayatou, the head of the African federation and a compatriot of Milla – hence the value to Blatter of being able to claim the support of the most famous Cameroonian of all.

Will's findings have caused several senior Fifa members to warn of an impending financial catastrophe. Lennart Johansson, the Uefa president and a Fifa vice-president, said: "[Fifa's] finances are in a mess and [Blatter] has taken Fifa to the brink of disaster."

Will was in March appointed the head of an investigation team to examine Fifa's finances only for the audit committee to be suspended by Blatter last month, a move viewed by his opponents as an attempt to gag the investigators. In his letter, Will says that Fifa borrowed £313m secured against income expected from the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and then used the money to claim it was in profit. He wrote: "Actually, we made a loss in of 572 million Swiss francs [£235m] from 1999 to 2001... and for 1999-2002 the true net loss for the four years is 470 million Swiss francs.

"You should understand that a company in Switzerland which finds itself with such negative equity, i.e. when liabilities exceed the assets, is legally bound to go to court and declare itself insolvent."

A Blatter spokesman dismissed the claims, saying: "It is surprising Mr Will should say this because as a member of the executive committee he approved the principle of securitisation."

Blatter is still the election front-runner, but Johansson – who is wary of any attempts to stage-manage the congress by the president – said he should consider pulling out of the election. He added: "It is still not too late for him to step down but if he refuses some of us have to make a stand."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in