Ethics
committee of football's world governing body will rule that its members cannot
keep watches offered as World Cup souvenirs
The Telegraph, Ben Rumsby, 15 Sep 2014
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| On the ball: Fifa's chief investigator Michael J Garcia has been praised for preventing a breach of its ethical code Photo: AFP |
Sepp
Blatter and other members of Fifa’s executive committee will be ordered to
surrender designer watches worth hundreds of thousands of pounds after being
given them at the World Cup.
Football’s
world governing body on Friday night confirmed its ethics committee had been
informed about gifts delivered to its president and 26 other executives during
the tournament in Brazil, the acceptance of which would be a clear breach of
its code of ethics.
Fifa also
revealed its chief investigator, Michael J Garcia, who last week submitted his
long-awaited report into the controversial 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, had
already blocked the delivery of another set of expensive watches to its ExCo
shortly before this summer’s showpiece.
Its ethics
committee is expected to rule next week that members cannot keep the second set
of timepieces left for them in their Rio hotel rooms by the Brazilian Football
Confederation (CBF).
Fifa, beset
by bribery scandals in recent years, insisted on Friday night that there was no
evidence Blatter or any of its other executives had deliberately breached a code
of ethics that prohibited the acceptance of gifts of anything other than
“symbolic or trivial value”.
Indeed, a
source said that some ExCo members had not even taken a gift bag containing the
watch which had been left for them, others were unaware what was in the bag,
while some reported the gifts to the relevant authority upon discovering them.
Fifa confirmed
the watches were designer timepieces by Parmigiani, commissioned as part of the
CBF’s centennial celebrations, with each worth tens of thousands of pounds.
The other
watches which never reached ExCo members were sent to Fifa’s headquarters in
Zurich by its official World Cup timekeeper, Hublot, as a “souvenir” of the
tournament. They were intended to be delivered to executives at the governing
body’s annual congress in Sao Paulo in June but Garcia and the independent
chairman of Fifa’s audit and compliance committee, Domenico Scala, ruled that
would not be acceptable.
A Fifa
source said on Friday night the action taken by Garcia and Scala in both cases
demonstrated the governance reforms it introduced in the past couple of years
was having a major effect.
The
governing body added in a formal statement: “Firstly, the fact is that Fifa has
not distributed any watches to any of the members of its executive committee
nor to its president.
“As the
official timekeeper of the 2014 Fifa World Cup, and in line with the company’s
standard approach for any of its marketing activations, Hublot provided Fifa
with watches as part of the contract and as a form of value in kind.
“In
accordance with internal governance processes, Fifa formally asked the
independent chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Fifa ethics committee,
Michael J Garcia, and the independent chairman of the audit and compliance
committee, Domenico Scala, in June 2014 if it would be acceptable to provide
its executive committee and the Fifa president with these watches as a souvenir
of the 2014 Fifa World Cup.
“The two
chairmen determined in June 2014 that this would not be permitted under the
organisation’s compliance rules and as such it was decided not to distribute
any of the watches to any members.
“Secondly,
the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF) distributed commemorative watches at
the Fifa World Cup in Brazil from their own sponsor (as part of the
association’s centennial celebrations) to various people, including the members
of the Fifa executive committee. The ethics committee was informed about this
accordingly and is dealing with the matter.”
Fifa
brought in a new code of ethics in 2012 after being engulfed by allegations of
bribery relating to its relationships with its partners and the bidding process
for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Garcia’s
long-awaited report into the latter saga is expected to lead to further action
to prevent a repeat of the controversy but it remains to be seen whether any
individuals or countries are found guilty of wrongdoing.
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