I cant punish Havelange over bribes, says Blatter - Football
Published: 12 Jul 2012 - 21:16:56
FIFA president Sepp Blatter insisted on Thursday that he did not have the power to punish former supremo Joao Havelange after the 96-year-old Brazilian was accused of taking bribes.
Court documents released in Switzerland revealed that Havelange, FIFA president for 24 years before Blatter stepped into the hotseat in 1998, pocketed at least 1.5m Swiss francs (£986,000) and FIFA executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira at least 12.74m.
The bribes, made by International Sport and Leisure (ISL), were detailed in documents made public by Switzerland's supreme court and published by the BBC on Wednesday.
FIFA's discredited Swiss-based marketing partner collapsed in 2001 with debts of around $300 million.
But Blatter went on the attack on Thursday, insisting that he was powerless to sanction his predecessor.
"I don't have the power to call him to account. The Congress named him as Honorary President. Only the Congress can decide his future," Blatter told www.fifa.com.
Blatter insisted that payments were not illegal under Swiss law at the time.
"Known what? That commission was paid? Back then, such payments could even be deducted from tax as a business expense," he said.
"Today, that would be punishable under law. You can't judge the past on the basis of today's standards. Otherwise it would end up with moral justice. I can't have known about an offence that wasn't even one."
Blatter admitted he had been referred to as P1 in the court documents.
"It was the Swiss Federal Court that decided to make the publication of the ISL non-prosecution order anonymous. As far as I am concerned, the whole document could have been published 'clean', to put an end to the speculation once and for all," he said.
"However, the Federal Court stated that the 'names of all non-accused third parties' should be made anonymous. I am not accused, so I have been made anonymous as P1, which quite honestly is not difficult to find out."
FIFA published the Swiss court's report on its website on Wednesday and in a statement world football's governing body emphasised that while Havelange and Teixeira were identified Blatter was not.
"The decision of the Swiss Federal Court also confirms that only two foreign officials will be named as part of the process and that.....the FIFA president is not involved in the case," the statement stressed.
The court documents did reveal that FIFA chiefs had knowledge that Havelange and Teixeira had been paid bribes by ISL.
It also disclosed that FIFA had agreed to pay 2.5million Swiss francs (£1.64m) in compensation - but only on the condition that criminal proceedings against Havelange and Teixeira were dropped.
Havelange, who remains FIFA's honorary president, stepped down after a 48-year-spell as a member of the International Olympic Committee last December just days before an ethics hearing into his links with ISL.
Havelange was accused by a BBC documentary in 2010 of kickbacks totalling $1 million from ISL for granting lucrative World Cup contracts.
Havelange, who became an IOC member in 1963, was FIFA president between 1974-98 before he was replaced by Blatter, his long time FIFA secretary general.
In May he was discharged after two months in hospital in Rio de Janeiro where he was being treated for an ankle infection and cardiac and pulmonary problems.
He is the former father-in-law of Teixeira, who recently resigned as head of Brazilian football and as chief of Brazil's organizing committee for the 2014 World Cup following a spate of corruption allegations.
Havelange was instrumental in bringing the Olympics to Rio de Janeiro and to South America for the first time when in 2009 the IOC elected the city as the 2016 host.
At the vote in Copenhagen he famously invited IOC members to his 100th birthday party on Copacabana beach in 2016 should they award the Games to Rio.
Related FIFA News
Khan vows to KO Garcia - The Press in York
Khan vows to KO Garcia
12:11am Friday 13th July 2012 in National Sport News © Press Association 2011
Danny Garcia's eccentric father stole the show as the WBC light-welterweight champion came face to face with Amir Khan ahead of Saturday's unification fight in Las Vegas.
Angel Garcia, who has made unsavoury comments about WBA champion Khan's Pakistani heritage in the past, gave an impassioned, heated speech at the main pre-fight press conference in which he touched on religion and then sat making gestures when it was Khan's turn to speak, holding up his son's belt, pulling faces, pretending to punch himself in the face and shouting comments.
Khan, speaking on the podium, said: "Garcia's team can say whatever they want. I promise you - I've never said this at a press conference - I will knock Danny Garcia out and win the titles. I will knock him out and if his dad wants it afterwards...That will shut his dad up anyway. I'm not going to do anything physical because his dad talks so much."
He went on: "I'm going to hurt his son. I'm going to do it in the ring. I cannot wait until after the fight, when I've knocked his son out and I'm stood here with the titles.
"Another thing, it's funny when he said he's never seen a Pakistani fight. He's going to see a Pakistani fight on Saturday and knock his son out. I can't wait to get in there. You're going to see a British Pakistani fight on Saturday and you're going to see him knock your guy out."
Newly reinstated WBA champion Khan is ready to move on from what he describes as the worst six months of his career.
Khan endured a "devastating" spell as he lost his WBA and IBF titles in a surprise defeat by Lamont Peterson last December. The fall-out from that fight was messy and controversial as Khan raised a number of grievances relating to issues inside and outside the ring.
The saga reached new levels before their scheduled May rematch when American Peterson tested positive for banned synthetic testosterone, before admitting he had already used it before their first fight in December, albeit for medical reasons.
While Peterson's positive test vindicated Khan and undermined the defeat, it also robbed the 25-year-old of the chance to avenge his second career loss. His bitterness has been eased, however, by the news that the WBA have stripped the title from Peterson and strapped it around his own waist once more.
"It was the hardest six months of my career," Khan told Press Association Sport ahead of Saturday's bout with WBC champion Garcia in Las Vegas. "Straight after the fight I was devastated because I'd lost the fight and I was so upset. Then when I got into the camp I was so happy that I'd got the rematch, because even that was so hard to negotiate. I agreed to whatever they said."
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