president Sepp Blatter’s corrupt regime in Zurich was laid bare yesterday by the publication of documents showing he and his closest two executives awarded themselves more than £55million of dodgy payments over five years.
FIFA’s American lawyers Quinn Emanuel, who have conducted a year-long probe into the wholesale wrongdoing at world football’s ruling body, produced the evidence after examining a mountain of documents.
Blatter (now suspended), secretary general Jerome Valcke and finance director Markus Kattner (both sacked) conducted a ‘co-ordinated effort to enrich themselves’ through pay rises, contract extensions and amendments, indemnity clauses and fabulous bonuses over a five-year period from the end of 2010.
Ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke accused of 'enriching themselves by £55m'
Former deputy secretary general Markus Kattner also received compensation awards during his time at FIFA
The millions of pounds of bonuses to former FIFA trio Blatter, Valcke and Kattner which are being probed
WHAT SEPP PAID HIMSELF
£8.4m: Performance bonus in May 2015, on top of a £1m annual bonus.
£8.4m: World Cup bonus paid almost three years before the 2014 showpiece in Brazil.
£7.7m World Cup bonus after the 2010 event in South Africa.
£1m: Another performance bonus in October 2013.
Blatter pocketed £23.3m, Valcke £22.9m and Kattner £9.5m — on top of their basic salaries.
FIFA revealed the staggering financial numbers the day after Swiss authorities raided Kattner’s office at FIFA headquarters in Zurich and took away documents and electronic data. The investigations are continuing with the possibility of criminal charges.
Bill Burck, a partner with Quinn Emanuel, who have effectively run FIFA since the organisation went into meltdown with the mass arrests in May 2015, said: ‘The evidence appears to reveal a co-ordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totalling more than 79m Swiss Francs — in just the last five years.’
Blatter and former colleagues are accused of costing the organisation more than £55m in the last five years
Swiss authorities carried out a search of FIFA's Zurich headquarters as they continue criminal investigation
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) conducted the search and seized documents
A statement from the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said: ‘As part of the ongoing criminal investigation in the FIFA affair, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland carried out a search of FIFA headquarters on June 2 (this year) with the aim of confirming existing findings and obtaining further information.
Documents and electronic data were seized and will now be examined to determine their relevance to the ongoing proceedings.
The secretly agreed payments were significantly more than Blatter’s base payment of £2.5m which was revealed by FIFA in March. He received an £8.4m bonus for the last World Cup.
And payments to the president remain the root of FIFA’s problems. New president Gianni Infantino refused the offer of £2.1m-a-year from the compensation committee chaired by Domenica Scala. She subsequently resigned his audit and compliance role after Infantino effectively took control of all independent FIFA committees in a power grab at a Council meeting in Mexico City.
Blatter is subject to the Swiss authorities' criminal investigation over the 'disloyal payment' to Michel Platini
Platini was banned after it was discovered he received a payment worth around £1.4m at current exchange rates from FIFA in 2011
Infantino also appointed United Nations diplomat Fatma Samoura as the most low-profile secretary general imaginable without her going through an integrity check.
The Scala-led proposals had been for the secretary general to be paid more than the president, which is clearly not going to be the case now.
FIFA chose to put the Blatter, Valcke and Kattner bonuses in the public domain on the day Infantino himself was facing questions as to why he had ordered a copy of the audio tape of the FIFA Council meeting in Mexico City to be deleted. FIFA claim it had been stored on the wrong network drive.
Blatter’s spokesman Klaus Stoehlker said: ‘My job for Blatter is finished. The FIFA volcano is exploding.’
FIFA sources have said the Infantino accusations came from the Kattner and Scala camps
Valcke's home, who was banned from football for 12 years in February, was raided by Swiss police in March
Current FIFA president Gianni Infantino has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the documents which appear to show he had signed off on a Champions League television rights deal in 2006 - which is under investigation
TIMELINE OF CONTROVERSY THAT HAS ENGULFED THE GOVERNING BODY
MAY 2002
After becoming FIFA president in 1998, Blatter seeks re-election four years later but his campaign is blighted by rumours of financial irregularities.
DEC 2010
Blatter reveals Qatar will stage the 2022 World Cup.
MAY 2011
After rival Mohammed bin Hammam withdraws from the presidential election amid allegations of bribery, Blatter runs unopposed and elected for a fourth term.
APRIL 2013
FIFA's ethics committee concludes an investigation into bribery allegations surrounding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Blatter is cleared of any wrongdoing.
FIFA cohorts 'co-ordinated effort to enrich themselves' which cost the governing body £55m in five years
MAY 2015
Fourteen FIFA officials are arrested over 'rampant and systemic' corruption allegations. Blatter is urged to resign, despite not being implicated. He is again re-elected as FIFA president.
JUNE 2015
Blatter announces his resignation as president, before Swiss newspaper Blick claims he did not actually resign.
SEPTEMBER 2015
Swiss prosecutors open a criminal investigation into him.
OCTOBER 2015
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are provisionally banned for 90 days.
NOVEMBER 2015
FIFA ethics committee investigations unit submit final case report and request that UEFA president Michel Platini is banned for life.
DECEMBER 2015
Blatter and Platini are handed eight-year bans from all football activities by FIFA's ethics committee
FEBRUARY 2016
Gianni Infantino became the ninth FIFA president after being elected in Zurich and promised to 'restore a new era' to world football's governing body.
MAY 2016
Platini resigns as UEFA president after having ban for corruption cut from six years to four at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
FIFA’s American lawyers Quinn Emanuel, who have conducted a year-long probe into the wholesale wrongdoing at world football’s ruling body, produced the evidence after examining a mountain of documents.
Blatter (now suspended), secretary general Jerome Valcke and finance director Markus Kattner (both sacked) conducted a ‘co-ordinated effort to enrich themselves’ through pay rises, contract extensions and amendments, indemnity clauses and fabulous bonuses over a five-year period from the end of 2010.
Ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Jerome Valcke accused of 'enriching themselves by £55m'
Former deputy secretary general Markus Kattner also received compensation awards during his time at FIFA
The millions of pounds of bonuses to former FIFA trio Blatter, Valcke and Kattner which are being probed
WHAT SEPP PAID HIMSELF
£8.4m: Performance bonus in May 2015, on top of a £1m annual bonus.
£8.4m: World Cup bonus paid almost three years before the 2014 showpiece in Brazil.
£7.7m World Cup bonus after the 2010 event in South Africa.
£1m: Another performance bonus in October 2013.
Blatter pocketed £23.3m, Valcke £22.9m and Kattner £9.5m — on top of their basic salaries.
FIFA revealed the staggering financial numbers the day after Swiss authorities raided Kattner’s office at FIFA headquarters in Zurich and took away documents and electronic data. The investigations are continuing with the possibility of criminal charges.
Bill Burck, a partner with Quinn Emanuel, who have effectively run FIFA since the organisation went into meltdown with the mass arrests in May 2015, said: ‘The evidence appears to reveal a co-ordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totalling more than 79m Swiss Francs — in just the last five years.’
Blatter and former colleagues are accused of costing the organisation more than £55m in the last five years
Swiss authorities carried out a search of FIFA's Zurich headquarters as they continue criminal investigation
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) conducted the search and seized documents
A statement from the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said: ‘As part of the ongoing criminal investigation in the FIFA affair, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland carried out a search of FIFA headquarters on June 2 (this year) with the aim of confirming existing findings and obtaining further information.
Documents and electronic data were seized and will now be examined to determine their relevance to the ongoing proceedings.
The secretly agreed payments were significantly more than Blatter’s base payment of £2.5m which was revealed by FIFA in March. He received an £8.4m bonus for the last World Cup.
And payments to the president remain the root of FIFA’s problems. New president Gianni Infantino refused the offer of £2.1m-a-year from the compensation committee chaired by Domenica Scala. She subsequently resigned his audit and compliance role after Infantino effectively took control of all independent FIFA committees in a power grab at a Council meeting in Mexico City.
Blatter is subject to the Swiss authorities' criminal investigation over the 'disloyal payment' to Michel Platini
Platini was banned after it was discovered he received a payment worth around £1.4m at current exchange rates from FIFA in 2011
Infantino also appointed United Nations diplomat Fatma Samoura as the most low-profile secretary general imaginable without her going through an integrity check.
The Scala-led proposals had been for the secretary general to be paid more than the president, which is clearly not going to be the case now.
FIFA chose to put the Blatter, Valcke and Kattner bonuses in the public domain on the day Infantino himself was facing questions as to why he had ordered a copy of the audio tape of the FIFA Council meeting in Mexico City to be deleted. FIFA claim it had been stored on the wrong network drive.
Blatter’s spokesman Klaus Stoehlker said: ‘My job for Blatter is finished. The FIFA volcano is exploding.’
FIFA sources have said the Infantino accusations came from the Kattner and Scala camps
Valcke's home, who was banned from football for 12 years in February, was raided by Swiss police in March
Current FIFA president Gianni Infantino has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the documents which appear to show he had signed off on a Champions League television rights deal in 2006 - which is under investigation
TIMELINE OF CONTROVERSY THAT HAS ENGULFED THE GOVERNING BODY
MAY 2002
After becoming FIFA president in 1998, Blatter seeks re-election four years later but his campaign is blighted by rumours of financial irregularities.
DEC 2010
Blatter reveals Qatar will stage the 2022 World Cup.
MAY 2011
After rival Mohammed bin Hammam withdraws from the presidential election amid allegations of bribery, Blatter runs unopposed and elected for a fourth term.
APRIL 2013
FIFA's ethics committee concludes an investigation into bribery allegations surrounding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Blatter is cleared of any wrongdoing.
FIFA cohorts 'co-ordinated effort to enrich themselves' which cost the governing body £55m in five years
MAY 2015
Fourteen FIFA officials are arrested over 'rampant and systemic' corruption allegations. Blatter is urged to resign, despite not being implicated. He is again re-elected as FIFA president.
JUNE 2015
Blatter announces his resignation as president, before Swiss newspaper Blick claims he did not actually resign.
SEPTEMBER 2015
Swiss prosecutors open a criminal investigation into him.
OCTOBER 2015
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are provisionally banned for 90 days.
NOVEMBER 2015
FIFA ethics committee investigations unit submit final case report and request that UEFA president Michel Platini is banned for life.
DECEMBER 2015
Blatter and Platini are handed eight-year bans from all football activities by FIFA's ethics committee
FEBRUARY 2016
Gianni Infantino became the ninth FIFA president after being elected in Zurich and promised to 'restore a new era' to world football's governing body.
MAY 2016
Platini resigns as UEFA president after having ban for corruption cut from six years to four at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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