• Ethics
investigator Michael Garcia quizzed England officials
• Any action
will be announced in next two months
The Guardian, Philip Oltermann in Berlin and Press Association, Sunday 15 June 2014
A payment of £35,000 by England’s 2018 World Cup bid to cover a gala dinner for Caribbean officials is being investigated by the Fifa ethics investigator Michael Garcia, it can be disclosed.
 |
| Michael Garcia, chairman of Fifa's ethics committee, is examining a £35,000 payment made by England 2018 World Cup bid. Photograph: Jamie Mcdonald - Fifa/via Getty |
A payment of £35,000 by England’s 2018 World Cup bid to cover a gala dinner for Caribbean officials is being investigated by the Fifa ethics investigator Michael Garcia, it can be disclosed.
Garcia
questioned England 2018 officials about picking up the bill for the Trinidad
dinner during interviews in London last year as part of his investigation into
bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The dinner was part of efforts to woo
the then influential Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, who has since quit
football in disgrace.
Any action
from Garcia’s report is likely to be announced within the next two months but
sources close to England’s bid say their lawyers are comfortable they did not
break any rules. The Football Association would not comment.
It can also
be revealed that Garcia is looking into all friendly matches played by bidding
nations with the countries of Fifa executive committee members before the 2010
vote.
England’s
friendly against Trinidad in June 2008 is unlikely to be called into question
as it took place before the bid was officially registered in 2009, even though
the FA had announced some time before the match that it was bidding.
However,
England 2018 did promise Thailand’s Fifa member an international match but
pulled out of the friendly after its humiliating defeat in December 2010. Other
bidding countries also staged friendlies against Fifa members’ countries – for
example Japan played Guatemala.
Fifa’s
bidding rules of conduct stated bidders should refrain from “any benefit,
opportunity, promise, remuneration, or service” to any Fifa members,
consultants or their families.
The £35,000
gala dinner was for 160 people from the Caribbean Football Union and took place
in Port of Spain in February 2010.
It was
revealed by Warner on the eve of the event, when he said: “It is costing the FA
about £35,000, but I think that is money well spent as it allows them to speak
to all 32 countries from the CFU.
“It also
means I will be able to get the collective view of my membership about who they
think should host the World Cup when the time comes for me to decide who I
should vote for.
“And in
light of the harsh economic conditions we are battling in the region the FA has
agreed to formally partner with us to host the dinner. It is an offer which I
have agreed to.”
At the
time, England 2018 said the £35,000 payment would allow the CFU to spend the
money they save on football projects instead.
David Dein,
the former Arsenal and FA vice-chairman, addressed the gala dinner in his role
as international president of the 2018 bid team.
The £35,000
is put into the shade by the £1m Qatar 2022 spent sponsoring the Confederation
of African Football’s congress and Australia 2022’s £300,000 on a grant to
Warner’s Concacaf centre of excellence in Trinidad.
Franz
Beckenbauer has hit back at Fifa over his 90-day ban for failing to aid the
continuing investigation into corruption allegations surrounding the bids for
the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and insisted he would cooperate with the inquiry.
In a
statement released via his manager, Marcus Höfl, Beckenbauer said he would
answer Fifa’s statement within the next two weeks and therefore assumed the
ban, which includes his attendance at World Cup games, would be lifted with
immediate effect.
But
Beckenbauer also criticised Fifa for failing to inform him of its decision
before going to the press. The two-times World Cup winner – once as a player,
the other as manager – had been “extremely surprised” by hearing of his ban via
the news on Friday, even though Fifa’s ethics rules state that any party
accused of deliberate breach would be given the chance to release an advance
statement.
“It was the
first time that Fifa did not know how to contact me by telephone,” said
Beckenbauer. “Furthermore I always assumed that I did not have to answer the
questions because I no longer hold an official function with Fifa. But that has
now been cleared up.”
In the
statement, Höfl said Beckenbauer had at no point ruled out answering the
questions put to him by Fifa.
Related Article:
 |
FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia delivers a speech
during the 64th FIFA congress on June 11, 2014 in
Sao Paulo (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)
|
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.