“You will write that the former executives of FIFA are worse off.” The French Jérôme Champagne received us in his beautiful villa of Zurich heights, “bought with a loan at 1.1% over 40 years, according to the Swiss method. You never really own, but it allows you to see bigger. ” The former diplomat, Chief of Protocol of France 98 and right arm Sepp Blatter, “resigned” in 2010 by the International Federation under the pressure of the continental confederations which was too intrusive, rightly seen “greater” in 2015.
He campaigned for the presidency of FIFA with the support of His Majesty Pele, before having to throw in the towel after failing to collect the five needed sponsorship federations. Too bad because Champagne defends an interesting position: it is for a profound reform of the organization, but also in defense of the institution. A small giant, which he would like to see greater powers to fight not only against the scourge of corruption, but also against the blatant inequalities affecting world football.
Sept leaders accused of massive fraud and arrested the eve of the FIFA Congress at the request of American justice. Ten other auditioned for suspicion of illicit enrichment by the Swiss Federal Prosecutor. The secretary general of the organization, Jérôme Valcke, involved in a transfer of suspect funds $ 10 million. And finally President Blatter who resigns four days after his reelection. What state of mind are you so black after those days for world football?
Like many people in football, I was struck by the brutality of the decision Sepp Blatter. I still remember his desire to revolutionize the operation of FIFA in the next six months [he will leave office at the end of the year, Ed] , by questioning the balance of power within the organization.
For the rest, regarding ongoing investigations, I will perhaps surprise you, but I want to be optimistic. The Ethics Committee of FIFA will never have the police resources and investigation available to the US court or the Swiss Federal Prosecutor. The arrival of these actors in the judicial game so I think a good thing. What I find reassuring also is that, in these cases, Fifa appears only in the background.
In the background, pardon?
The Fifa in recent days has seen accused of all evils. But let’s be precise. When we look at the US investigation, it relates to the leaders of the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, the two North and South American confederations. However, it should be understood that the continental confederations are not subsidiaries of the international federation. FIFA makes the rules of the game, organizing the World Cup, but it has no legal means to control the contracts awarded by these confederations, which are specific entities with no hierarchical link with it.
I would even go further: confederations now constitute a powerful power-cons within FIFA, as the President – Mr. Blatter – has to deal with a government – the executive committee – composed of members not elected but members appointed by the said confederations on different political agendas. This was true of all the leaders arrested Wednesday. It is also different personalities interviewed by the Swiss courts in connection with the investigation into the awarding of World Cups in 2018 and 2022. In this the will expressed this Tuesday by Mr. Blatter to democratically elect the Executive Committee by 209 delegates federation seems to be going in the right direction.
You say that FIFA is not directly affected by business. Jerome Valcke, secretary general of the organization is still involved in the payment of a suspect grant $ 10 million to Jack Warner, the former president of CONCACAF, the margins of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa …
I’m not deemed close to Mr Valcke [Jerome Valcke have participated in its shelved in 2010, Ed] but I must still recall some facts. These 10 million were on account of FIFA but they were owned by the South African federation. The federation was entitled to ask for the transfer. And we can give Mr. Valcke he was not supposed to know what Mr. Warner would make the money. What surprises me more is that the South African government did not make a direct donation to CONCACAF. And above that the bulk of this transfer was made two months before the South African federation formally ask Mr Valcke to do so. It rests the need to strengthen the financial control rules to FIFA.
And give credit to those like Michel Platini themselves “disgusted” by the recurrence of scandals FIFA …
If it is to point the collective responsibility of the leaders of FIFA in their failure to reform the institution, yes, fine. But it must be remembered that Michel Platini as UEFA President (EU Football Association), is a member of the executive committee of FIFA for 13 years, and said the UEFA Control thirds vote of that committee Through its appointed members. Especially, when Mr Platini friends and the Anglo-Saxon media explain that hundreds of millions of euros spent on development programs worldwide are a way for Mr Blatter to buy the voice of the poor countries, what arrogance regardless Eurocentrism!
Do not get the wrong debate. Ask the small country why they did not vote for Prince Ali of Jordan [beaten by Sepp Blatter by 133 votes against 73, Ed] that Michel Platini maintained at arms. We have the election for president of FIFA as a clash between corrupt and white knights, between pro-and pro-Blatter Platini. While it is a political conflict that is played around the regulation of world football.
For some in Europe, what is good for big clubs like Chelsea or Real Madrid is automatically good for soccer. The rest of the world, it is simply a reservoir of young talent, and TV audiences for the national championships. For some in Europe, it does not matter that Brazil loses more than 1,000 professional players a year, or Cameroonian League that fascinated the people there 20 years ago no longer meet its stages. Beyond rivalries, it’s really a conflict of vision.
Blatter was therefore, in the absence of any other credible candidate, the guarantor of balance in world football?
Even the most critical observers recognize that transformed FIFA. The World Cup today reported 25 times more than that of 1998. Blatter was originally the first commercial sponsorship deals, and the first development programs. One not without the other. There are some days I looked on the internet the first matches of the World Cup less than 20 years. Panama-Argentina: 2-2. It means that young people of a small state of 3 million inhabitants, who once was interested only in baseball today can hold a candle to one of the greatest football nations.
Yes, FIFA contributes to the universal sport by redistributing money from the World Cup. Yes, since 2001, it punctures 5% of the amount of transfers to repay the trainer clubs. Yes, this makes Mr. Blatter popular among trimmers football and that does not make everyone happy in the big European clubs.
You say that Blatter is not corrupt. What makes you say that
The same as are many of his relatives: Blatter is not a man of money, otherwise it n would not have had such longevity in office. When I came to FIFA immediately after his election, there was virtually no financial standards. Four years later, as the Swiss law does not impose, he did apply IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standard) one of the most stringent regulatory standards in the world. Under his reign, Fifa has changed dramatically. Today on commercial contracts, financial transfers, it is pretty much faultless.
And when the secretary general Jerome Valcke sent counted 10 million on a run by Jack Warner, it does person react? Blatter did not know?
But again, this money was not that of FIFA. There was no executive decision to validate the transfer. The amounts are high but it is within accounting. And resume the statutes of the organization: the accounting and financial management is the responsibility of the Secretary General, not the Presidency
So Blatter and you did not know
No. We just knew that Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, wanted to leave a share of the financial legacy of the World Cup to Africa and to the descendants of slaves.
But tell that he was not surprised by discovering the extent of the alleged misappropriation leaders of Concacaf and Conmebol … If you had suspicions, why not have launched alarm?
There is a difference between not surprising and have evidence. In the American case, is quoted a Mr. Havilah, owner of a large Brazilian company of sports marketing, which would particularly hit kickbacks on negotiating an equipment contract between Nike and the Brazilian federation. This gentleman Havilah was already suspected it 20 years ago when I was 3 at the Embassy of France in Brasilia.
A parliamentary inquiry was even set up, but she was blocked by bancada do futebol, the Parliamentary Group of Friends of football, led by the former head of the federation Ricardo Teixeira. You will say: “You were in FIFA, you have not denounced.” Wait, even Brazilian justice has failed to collect the evidence.
About Ricardo Teixeira, there is also a story that I tell in my book [How I want Fifa revolutionize Hugo Sport, 2014, Ed] . One day in 2009, the FIFA president called me into his office and handed me a cardboard folder: “Jerome, you can look at this issue, it concerns Teixeira [who had just be sentenced for tax evasion, Ed] , I was assured that it was not serious. Check please! ” I have reviewed, I read, I got the full judgment, and I discovered that it was serious.
Teixeira chaired the organizing committee of the Brazilian world cup Conmebol represented on the executive committee of FIFA. Suffice to say he had long arms. And I put myself in danger. Still, Teixeira had to resign all his duties in 2012, two years before the world.
Three years for the “resign” is a long time …
It was a first instance sentence after 15 years of investigations in Brazil and Teixeira had appealed. Moreover, at the time the Ethics Commission could initiate proceedings with the permission of the Secretary General.
Jerome Valcke, the same who had assured Blatter that the facts complained to Teixeira were not serious …
I have mentioned no names.
The Anglo-Saxon press also feeds suspicions about the use of funds released as part of the development programs of FIFA …
There, I can talk directly. I myself have managed the ‘Win in Africa, “with 70 million, one of whose tasks was to install 54 artificial pitches across the continent. It was completed with the final $ 100,000 credit exceeded. The money could not disappear because it is we who negotiate the contracts were installing lawns. And all this from Zurich. The money never passed by local federations. We must stop talking nonsense.
What could be a problem, it is the financial aid paid directly to the federations. They are subject in recent years to audit obligations by recognized firms. But it has not always been the case. There are also countries where the facilities have been constructed or poorly used. I think in Benin, Congo Kinshasa, Antigua and Barbuda.
But once again, we will not abandon the social security because there is 2% of fraudsters. For a technical center in Benin dormant, how many lawns, stadiums, training centers that enabled federations to organize and join the football family. I could talk about Madagascar, Cape Verde, Belize, or Palestine, where football was literally carried by Fifa.
There is still a risk with confetti states. The principle of “one country, one vote” allows officers of a small country to take a disproportionate place in world football, provided they have a personal fortune or interpersonal skills. Before being arrested Wednesday, May 27, Jeffrey Webb, head of the federation of the Cayman Islands, 58,000 inhabitants, was considered a potential successor to Sepp Blatter …
This is a extraordinary arrogance that you say.
No, it is a reality.
What is the supervising country Cayman Islands? The UK, right? The same UK so quick to complain about the excesses of FIFA! The problem you raise is real. That said, as Churchill would have said, democracy is the worst system of government except all the others. FIFA must deal with the reality of the world
A lot of money, few controls. Yet the ingredients are gathered for massive embezzlement …
In international finance either, there are not many controls. Me, I would hold that rather is that with the “one federation one vote” perhaps FIFA is the only body which redistributes much money. If there was a water Fifa, who took a percentage of sales distribution networks in developed countries and who used it to dig wells, the water problem in the world would partly solved.
Blatter party, an extraordinary congress shall appoint a new president at the end of the year. Are you a candidate again?
It is too early to tell. I defended a program based on a solidarity vision of football: combat corruption but also struggle against inequality and the decline of the sporting uncertainty. We were not much on these positions. If necessary, yes of course, I take my responsibilities.
Interview by Gurvan Le Guellec
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