History of scandal

Although the current intrigues that reach to the very top of FIFA have reached a new dimension, the organization's image has been damaged for some time.

FIFA is in the middle of its deepest crisis to date, with an unparalleled campaign of allegations and counter-allegations ahead of an election to appoint a president, with incumbent Sepp Blatter now the only candidate.

Two top officials have been suspended - Mohamed bin Hammam, the Qatari president of the Asian Football Confederation, and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner.

They are accused of bribing Caribbean officials to support Hammam's presidency. In turn, the pair accuse Blatter of being aware of wrongdoing, but failing to do anything about it.

The current difficulties began on March 18 when bin Hamman announced his candidacy to become the president of FIFA. This was seen as something of an affront to Blatter. In previous elections he had always been able to rely on the support of bin Hammam, who since his suspension has withdrawn from the running.

Problems rooted in the past

But murky allegations against senior officials with the organization go back further.

Last year saw a corruption investigation into former executive members of FIFA Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, who both fell foul of an investigation by the British newspaper The Sunday Times.

Both FIFA officials agreed to an apparently corrupt offer proposed by journalists involving sums as high as 580,000 euros ($835,000) and 1.6 million euros.

As the scandal broke, the pair were suspended from their posts by FIFA - Adamu for three years and Temarii for one year.

FIFA head Blatter reacted with the claim there was no more to be done when it came to investigating corruption, and punishing officials further.

"All doubts have been cleared up," said Blatter.

'Legal evidence exists'

Thomas Kistner, sports journalist from the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and author of a book on the machinations within FIFA describes this as "utter nonsense."

"There is enough evidence that could stand up in court that proves corruption in the executive committee."

It was not the first time that the executive committee, FIFA's top decision-making body, was under the spotlight of critics. Even as early as Blatter's election as FIFA boss in 1998, allegations of corruption were being made.

Blatter had allegeldy distributed 20 letters - along with payments of some 35,000 euros - to African officials in the run-up to the election.

Blatter played the matter down, claiming that it had been a case of making pre-scheduled payments to "organizations in difficult situations." Several African delegates contradicted this, saying that the payments along with other promises had been a reward for their agreement to vote for Blatter.

In addition, the delegates named one man as being linked with the bribes - a certain Mohamed bin Hammam.

Impact of contract scandal minimized

In 2008, Swiss authorities investigated corruption in sport and came across a large-scale bribery scandal.

It found that the Swiss marketing agency ISL/ISMM, which went into bankruptcy in 2001, had paid commissions totaling at least 100 million euros to sports officials to obtain lucrative television and sponsorship deals.

Among the recipients were also three FIFA executive members - Issa Hayatou from Cameroon, Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay and Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil.

That the three received payments of such magnitude appears not to have been of great concern to FIFA, with all three still members of the executive committee.

The affair was deftly resolved by FIFA - for a payment of 4 million euros the case was closed and the names of other suspects did not come to light.

Chance of profit, little risk

Even before this, Teixeira had been making headlines in connection with the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. According to press reports, Teixeira was to pocket half of the profits from the World Cup, with the other half going to the Brazilian football association.

Should the tournament make a loss, contrary to expectations, Teixeira was responsible for only 0.01 percent of the losses, with the football association responsible for the rest. Teixeira has been a member of the FIFA executive committee since 1994. At that time, the organization was still led by his father Joao Havelange.

Recently, the very choice of World Cup host countries has also been called into question over its transparency. At the beginning of December last year, Russia and Qatar were announced as hosts for 2018 and 2022 - to the bemusement of many observers. Both had previously been deemed the worst bids.

Suspicion lingers on

And so the smell of corruption refuses to go away. The Sunday Times has reported allegations that Qatar had paid to become the hosts of the World Cup in 2022. In addition, British lawmaker Damian Collins and the organizer of the English World Cup bid for 2018 Lord Triesman accuse numerous executive members of the governing body of corruption in the decision-making process for the venue.

The Wall Street Journal has written of a 59 million euro payment from Qatar to the Argentine Football Association. The association's head Julio Gronda did little to dispel suspicion. "I am saying nothing about it," he said. "I am almost 80 years old. I am not prepared to deal with such a thing."

Author: Joscha Weber / rc
Editor: Nicole Goebel