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FIFA paid Sepp Blatter $3.76m in 2015, reports $122m in losses


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FIFA paid Sepp Blatter $3.76m in 2015, reports $122m in losses

ESPN FC's Brian McBride says FIFA could be trying to wash their hands by admitting past corruption in World Cup bidding process.

ZURICH -- FIFA finally revealed Sepp Blatter's pay deal on Thursday, which was $3.76 million in 2015 as football's embattled governing body reported a loss of $122m for a year marred by scandal.

After years of secrecy about presidential earnings, FIFA disclosed its disgraced former leader's pay package three weeks after his employment officially ended.

Blatter, who was suspended on full pay last October and later banned for unethical conduct, had a base salary of 2,964,379 million Swiss francs ($3m) but received no performance bonus in 2015. The total included a payment of almost $450,000 in "variable compensation" -- a long-service entitlement for reaching 40 years employment at FIFA.

FIFA's loss, its first since 2002, was expected after failing to sign any new World Cup sponsors.

Despite the corruption crisis, FIFA's total income was $1.152b in 2015. Expenses of $1.274b included spending $61.5m on "legal matters."

That helped ensure that FIFA's reserves fund fell by $183m to $1.34b.

FIFA spent $27.9m last year paying executive committee members and senior management, including Blatter. That total was $39.7m in the 2014 World Cup year.

FIFA's now-fired secretary general, Jerome Valcke, got 2.125m Swiss francs ($2.2m) in 2015. Each executive committee member was paid $300,000, and senior vice president Issa Hayatou of Cameroon got an additional $500,000 for chairing the finance committee. The Swiss attorney general opened a criminal case against Valcke on Thursday.

FIFA agreed to start publishing executive pay in modernising reforms approved last month, as a response to American and Swiss federal investigations of corruption implicating dozens of football officials, including Blatter.

"With the recently approved reforms, I believe that we have turned a corner and that FIFA is poised to emerge stronger than ever," Gianni Infantino, Blatter's successor, said in a statement.

FIFA has acknowledged that potential commercial partners were put off by fallout from the scandals.

Top-tier sponsors Sony and Emirates Airlines have not been replaced since the 2014 World Cup, and 27 of 34 commercial slots remain unsold for the 2018 tournament in Russia.

New sponsor deals are likely to be announced soon, with Asian companies expected to step in. FIFA's prospects improved when member federations passed the anti-corruption reforms last month and elected Swiss lawyer Infantino as president.

FIFA wants to keep Infantino's pay package secret for one more year until the 2016 accounts are published. His salary will be less than Blatter's, and should also be less than the yet-to-be appointed secretary general who will have wider, CEO-like decision-making powers in the modernised FIFA structure.

Cuts in staff bonuses from the World Cup appear to be reflected in FIFA's total wage bill. In 2015, FIFA added 108 employees, for a total of 582, yet "personnel expenses" fell by more than $23 million to $92 million.

FIFA's legal costs soared in 2015, mostly because it retained American legal firm Quinn Emanuel. Its priority is to help prevent FIFA from being indicted as a co-conspirator in bribery by the U.S. Department of Justice.

FIFA's spending on "legal matters" was almost double the $31.3m bill for 2014.

FIFA also paid only $3.85m in tax, mainly on profits earned by subsidiary companies. Its tax bill was $36m in 2014 when the annual profit was $140.7m.

The accounts were published minutes after the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed that Blatter filed his appeal against a six-year ban from football for financial conflicts of interest. CAS said Blatter seeks to annul the ban.

In the foreword to FIFA's Financial and Governance Report, Infantino said: "These results stand as a cautionary tale of what can happen if we lose sight of the primary responsibilities of our mission, and if we fail to take the necessary steps to protect our organisation against wrongdoing.

"It is to the credit of the decent majority within the organisation that we acted together, in these difficult times, to limit the damage and to secure the future of FIFA.

"FIFA's healthy financial reserves, built up when the sun was shining as a prudent insurance against unforeseen risks, have served to further stabilise the organisation, and to give us the breathing space we need to put things right.

"This strong financial position overall means we are more than capable of weathering the current storm.

"By taking the necessary steps to support reform at the extraordinary congress in February, I believe that we have turned a corner and that FIFA is poised to emerge stronger than ever."

http://www.espnfc.com.au/blog/fifa/243/post/2831579/fifa-paid-sepp-blatter-$376m-in-2015-and-reports-$122m-loss

  • 2 months later...
  • 3 months later...
Posted

FIFA bans Qatari official from Asian vote

By: dt news
 
, Posted on 26-Sep-2016
 

 

FIFA bans Qatari official from Asian vote

Panaji : World football body FIFA has banned a senior Qatari official from running in elections for a seat on its new-look council over an investigation.

Scandal-plagued FIFA's ethics committee last month recommended a two-and-a-half-year ban from the game for Saoud Al-Mohannadi, vice-president of the Qatar Football Association, for refusing to cooperate with an inquiry.

FIFA has not revealed the subject of the inquiry, but it is not connected with the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar will host.

Mohannadi denies any wrongdoing and had been cleared to stand in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) elections in Goa, India, on Tuesday before the AFC announced that he'd been ruled out.

"FIFA has advised the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that, based on the report of the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, it has decided Mr Saoud A. Aziz Al-Mohannadi (Qatar) is not eligible to stand in the elections for the FIFA Council," the AFC said in a statement late Sunday.

Six candidates from Asia, including China and North Korea, will vie at the AFC extraordinary congress in Goa for three seats on FIFA's council, which was set up under anti-corruption reforms earlier this year.

FIFA's all-powerful executive committee, which had become the epicentre of corruption  at the organisation, was rebranded as a FIFA council at the body's congress in Mexico earlier this year.

It was created to operate in a similar way to a company's board of directors as part of plans to make the organisation more transparent, including in the awarding of host countries for World Cups, following a string of corruption scandals.

Three male candidates -- Zhang Jian of China, Iran's Ali Kafashian Naeni and Zainudin Nordin of Singapore -- will compete for two of the seats in Tuesday's vote, which will be attended by FIFA President Gianni Infantino

Three women are contesting the third slot under FIFA's reforms which state that each confederation must have a minimum of one female representative on the council.

Former Australian footballer Moya Dodd is favourite to pip Mahfuza Ahkter of Bangladesh and North Korea's Han Un-Gyong to be the AFC female representative.

Infantino is undertaking a clean-up of FIFA after a series of corruption scandals and bribery allegations plunged the body into crisis.

Former president Sepp Blatter is serving a six-year ban from football over ethics violations while former secretary-general Jerome Valcke was banned for 10 years over misconduct regarding television deals and 2014 World Cup ticket sales.

Allegations of vote-buying have also dogged the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar.

 
AFP

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