Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, former secretary general Jerome Valcke and former finance director Markus Kattner appear to have paid each other bonuses tied to the World Cup along with other incentives in the last five years since their departure from world soccer’s governing body.
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The report was released around one hour after the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) announced that it had searched FIFA’s headquarters on Thursday “with the aim of confirming existing findings and obtaining further information”.
Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber opened criminal proceedings against Mr Blatter last September, and against Mr Valcke in March.
The allegations come in the wake of a raid on Federation Internationale de Football Association headquarters in Zurich with Swiss investigators searching Kattner’s office particularly.
Quinn Emanuel continues to further investigate the matter and also pointed towards CHF14m awarded to Valcke and Kattner for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and provisions for a combined CHF15.5m at the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.
Valcke, 55, and Kattner, 45, were also given generous severance terms that guaranteed them full payment in case their employment with Federation Internationale de Football Association was terminated, which was likely had Blatter not be re-elected.
Attorneys Quinn Emanuel, following the examination of millions of documents, found contracts which benefited Blatter, Valcke and Kattner were on multiple occasions amended, often on the same day and at dubious times. Valcke and Kattner have both been fired in recent months over World Cup ticket scandals and payments they received.
“This mention does not refer to the officially archived audio file”, Federation Internationale de Football Association spokesperson Delia Fischer added.
His U.S. lawyer, Richard Cullen, said in a statement: “We look forward to showing Federation Internationale de Football Association that Mr. Blatter’s compensation payments were proper, fair and in line with the heads of major professional sports leagues around the world”.
Die Welt said it had seen emails suggesting that Infantino had ordered senior FIFA officials to delete recordings of a controversial meeting of the FIFA Council, formerly the executive committee, before last month’s Congress in Mexico City.
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Valcke and Kattner signed eight-year contract extensions on April 30, 2011 – five weeks before Blatter was due to contest a bitterly fought presidential election against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar.
