Report: FIFA's decision-making questioned by document

By Wolfgang Mueller Jan 26, 2012, 14:12 GMT

Berlin - A hand-written note by FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke to former vice-president Jack Warner has raised questions on the decision-making process at football's ruling body FIFA.

German paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) published the note on Thursday, speculating that it may be in connection with an alleged deal between FIFA president Joseph Blatter and Warner over television rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

'Jack, here is the agreement signed by the P (president). This deal has not been through all normal boards or committees so I'm asking to make no publicity on it for the time being. Kind regards Jerome,' said the document.

The FIFA communications department told dpa on Thursday the note, according to the SZ made available by Warner, appeared to be authentic but did not want to speculate on the topic.

'Yes, the paper seems to be authentic. But the question is: What agreement is it? What is the context,' FIFA told dpa in an email.

'The president has the right to sign agreements which he then presents to the executive committee or the relevant committee. If Jack Warner is asked not to go public with the agreement then only to inform the relevant boards first.'

The Trinidad and Tobago native Warner resigned from his football posts in connection with bribery allegations that he and then presidential candidate Mohammed Bin Hammam gave cash to Caribbean officials to vote for Bin Hammam against Blatter in 2011.

Bin Hammam was kicked out of FIFA and Blatter won a fourth term unopposed in June.

Bin Hammam and Warner have protested their innocence and Warner alleged recently that he received lucrative television rights for symbolic fees from Blatter for supporting him at previous presidential elections.

The SZ suggested that Blatter was deciding certain issues including the important sale of TV rights - FIFA's biggest financial asset - on his own and wondered whether these issues were then fully discussed by the executive committee. If not, the paper alleged, it would probably violate FIFA rules.

FIFA told dpa that there was no reason for the ethics committee to get involved in the case.

Meanwhile, the head of FIFA's newly installed Governance Committee, Swiss Mark Pieth, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) he expects more revelations on possible wrongdoings by FIFA top officials while saying that Blatter himself was no real important figure for the committee.

'I would not say that FIFA is corrupt. But there are too many individuals in this structure. I am aware that the weakened people in the FIFA leadership, who did private business next to their (FIFA) function, are a huge problem,' Pieth said.

The Governance Committee has been criticised by the likes of Transparency International because Pieth is on FIFA's payroll.

The committee is a result of a clean-up effort by Blatter after FIFA came under fire over corruption allegations over issues ranging from TV rights to the elections of World Cup hosts.