Various allegations have been made about corruption in Fifa, although none of them have been substantiated in a court of law. One of the difficulties in investigating whether these allegations have any substance is that Fifa is not really accountable to anyone.
Various allegations have been made about corruption in Fifa, although none of them have been substantiated in a court of law. One of the difficulties in investigating whether these allegations have any substance is that Fifa is not really accountable to anyone.
However, it is headquartered in Switzerland and is therefore subject to Swiss law. It is evident that the Swiss government has become increasingly concerned about potential danage to the country’s image in addition to criticisms made of banking secrecy. The Federal Government has therefore decided to launch a probe into corruption in sports bodies.
Of course, Fifa is one of only nearly 50 such bodies based in Switzerland which was the original home of the pre-war League of Nations and now hosts other global bodies like the World Trade Organisation. The investigation is not just about Fifa, but should any apparent wrongdoing be detected, the Swiss authorities are capable of being very tenacious in pursuing it.
The following comment has been made by someone with expertise in the area, ‘One would assume that the fact that the court in Zug at the time of the case [involving ISL] couldn’t address the issues of corruption because this wasn’t a crime in Switzerland at the time of the collapse of ISL. [This] encouraged the 50 sporting organisations to “set up shop” there and with Swiss law still allowing non-sporting orgs to avoid updated law on corruption there seems little reason to move.
ISL monies were redirected through a circuitous route which included Liechtenstein and the British Virgin Islands before it made its way into FIFA coffers and onto members, one hopes that the fact that both of these financial bolt holes are both being placed under extreme scrutiny by international financial regulators would probably indicate that FIFA may not be the only organisation that needs to look over their shoulders. If the Swiss authorities do address the issues relating to transparency it will make life very difficult for a number of sporting bodies to continue to cast a shadow over the sports they purport to represent. Hopefully the noose as well as the loopholes continue to close.’
A downside risk is that if sporting bodies headquartered in Switzerland come to consider that they are being scrutinised too much by the Swiss authorities they may move to a less intensive jurisdiction, possibly Qatar.
In Ghana an anti-corruption unit has raided the offices of the national football federation and seized files and computers,