Fifa grants to associations under scrutiny
A file picture taken on December 2, 2010 shows FIFA President Sepp Blatter holding up the name of Qatar during the official announcement of the 2022 World Cup host country at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich. FIFA's leadership meets on July 20, 2015 to decide the date of a vote to replace Mr Blatter as a corruption storm inflicts ever worsening damage on world football. PHOTO | FILE |
What you need to know:
- Football Kenya Federation benefits from such grants including the Financial Assistance Programme started by Fifa in 1999.
- A Fifa spokeswoman said it “is cooperating fully in the actions by the Swiss authorities.”
Swiss authorities are examining development grants made by Fifa around the world as part of their investigation into the sport’s global governing body and its award of World Cup hosting rights for Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, a source familiar with the probe said.
In particular, the investigators are looking at how the money was spent and whether there is any falsification of documents, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The grants mainly go to national football associations and are often earmarked for new football pitches and related facilities, or for training programs.
Football Kenya Federation benefits from such grants including the Financial Assistance Programme started by Fifa in 1999.
The annual funds disbursed to member associations currently stand as $250,000 (about Sh24.5 million). FKF has also benefited from the Fifa Goal Project that runs into millions of shillings.
The first programme, worth $400,000 (Sh39 million) was used to built the FKF headquarters at Kasarani that includes offices and sleeping quarters.
The federation has also recived funding for two other Goal Projects in Nairobi and Kisumu.
The Swiss investigation is running alongside and in cooperation with a US probe that led to the criminal indictment on May 27 of nine current and former Fifa officials and five executives in sports marketing and broadcasting on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud charges.
Information technology specialists from Switzerland’s federal police agency, as well as prosecutors and financial experts, are poring over masses of evidence collected by the office of Switzerland’s Attorney General, the source said.
The evidence includes voluminous internal records, most in digitised form, seized from the offices of Fifa’s President Sepp Blatter, Secretary General Jerome Valcke and finance and administrative chief Markus Kattner. The source said “almost everything” in Valcke’s office had been seized.
Blatter, who announced earlier this month that he was stepping down after 17 years as Fifa president, Valcke and Kattner have not been accused of wrongdoing by the Swiss and U.S. authorities.
A Fifa spokeswoman said it “is cooperating fully in the actions by the Swiss authorities.”
It made no further comment.
