Supplementary written evidence submitted
by The Sunday Times
Last November The Sunday Times gave Fifa tape
recordings of current and former officials alleging that Qatar
was involved in vote buying. We mentioned this in our submission
to your committee which was published on 10 May 2011. These allegations
have never been investigated by Fifa.
As we also mentioned in our submission, we spoke
to a whistleblower who alleged that Qatar had been offering members
of the Fifa executive committee large amounts of money for their
votes. After these allegations were raised in your select committee
hearing, Fifa contacted this newspaper on 11 May asking for our
evidence.
We therefore attempted to arrange a meeting between
Fifa and the whistleblower. The whistleblower's lawyer, on behalf
of his client, requested a number of assurances from Fifa as a
condition of giving evidence. These terms were agreed by Chris
Eaton, Fifa's head of security, on 20 May. Mr Eaton said in an
email: "I appreciate, understand and agree with the conditions
you [sic] on behalf of WB [whistleblower]." The whistleblower's
lawyer sent Fifa a draft agreement, including the agreed terms,
the following day.
However, on 23 May Marco Villiger, Fifa's director
of legal affairs, suggested "a different approach" which
did not include the assurances sought by the whistleblower. When
the whistleblower's lawyer pressed for the terms that had been
agreed to be included in any agreement, Villiger said in an email
on 24 May that they were "not acceptable" without explaining
why. The whistleblower's lawyer had been expecting to meet Fifa
to negotiate an arrangement that would address concerns of both
sides. However, Fifa made no further attempt to contact the lawyer
or the whistleblower. Instead Fifa issued a statement on 7 June
which said that the conditions requested by the whistleblower
could not possibly be accepted.
It appeared to us that a responsible sport governing
body would have been keen to find a way of talking to the whistleblower
rather than closing the matter down at the earliest possible opportunity.
It made us question whether Fifa really wanted to investigate
the whistleblower's allegations.
24 June 2011
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