FBI Closing In On FIFA President, Sepp Blatter

The dark campaign to give the 2006 tournament to Germany involved the shafting of South Africa, wrapped up in a strategy designed to retain the FIFA presidency for Sepp Blatter.

In 2000, Blatter was fighting to survive at the next presidential election due in 2002. Europe was still angry at the way he and [his mentor Joao] Havelange had manipulated and bribed voters [in the presidential election] in Paris in 1998.

Diverting the 2006 World Cup to Germany should satisfy the UEFA countries; their officials would get jobs and tickets out of the tournament.

The three crucial players in 2000 in the campaign to win 2006 were a German billionaire TV mogul, Leo Kirch, one of Germany’s most respected former footballers, Franz Beckenbauer, and a German bagman, Fedor Radmann.

Blatter, Kirch, Beckenbauer, Radmann, and [marketing firm] ISL boss Jean-Marie Weber were the ultimate insiders in the world of football power.

Germany’s bid was in trouble by early 2000. South Africa seemed to be leading Germany in the scramble for the votes at FIFA’s executive committee. This was no good to Kirch and his Munich-based pay-TV channels. Radmann had the skills to fix this problem. Kirch had the money and Beckenbauer was, helpfully, president of Bayern Munich.

They came up with a plan: some surprising football matches, for a team of Bayern’s immense status. They would play Malta’s national team and there would be an extraordinary fee of $300,000 for the TV rights, to be paid by KirchMedia into an undisclosed bank account in Malta. The president of Malta football, Joe Mifsud, was a member of FIFA’s ExCo.

Another big fee would be paid for Bayern to play Trinidad’s national team. The president of Trinidad football, Jack Warner, was a member of FIFA’s ExCo and known as a man who even holds his hand out in his sleep. The match never took place but a year later Warner was given Caribbean TV rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

Another big fee would be paid for Bayern to travel to Tunis and play top team Espérance. Its president was Slim Chiboub, married to a daughter of Tunisian state president Ben Ali and who may have been able to put pressure on Tunisia’s ExCo member. Bayern would pay all their own expenses.

As the day of the vote approached, the lobbying, sleeve-tugging and whispers intensified. The danger for Germany was a 12-12 draw. Blatter would have to make a casting vote and he had announced that if this happened, it would go to South Africa. It was essential to say this if he was to keep the African vote for the 2002 presidential election.

The voting began. In the first round England got five votes. In the second Germany and South Africa tied with 11 votes each. England got two and was eliminated. One of England’s votes was cast by New Zealand’s Charlie Dempsey.

He had been mandated by his regional confederation in Oceania to vote for England and when they dropped out, to back South Africa. Even if Germany picked up the other floating vote, the result would still be a draw; Blatter had to back the Africans. The result was now obvious. See you in Cape Town in 2006.

They voted for a final time: Germany 12 votes, South Africa 11 votes! See you in Munich in 2006. But that was only 23 votes. Somebody had not voted. Who was it? It was Charlie Dempsey. He had walked out between rounds. He was at Zurich airport, catching a plane home.

The rumour soon spread that Radmann had ‘fixed’ Charlie. Anticipating the possibility of a 12-12 draw, the arrangement was that Charlie would leave the vote, go back to the Dolder Grand hotel and collect a briefcase left for him in the cloakroom. It contained $250,000. A cab would rush him to the airport for the flight home.

I wrote to Fedor Radmann about the 2006 bidding scandals. He replied that he doesn’t know anything about persuading Charlie Dempsey to walk out. And he insists that he is not the Fedor Radmann named in the secret memo arranging to pay the fees to foreign teams to play Bayern Munich. It must be somebody else with the same name.

He’d like me to make that clear. That’s what he says and I’m very happy to get it on the record. Three weeks after the vote, in August 2000, the ExCo met again in Zurich for normal business. I have a copy of the confidential minutes. Blatter told his colleagues that ‘the controversy surrounding this election showed how vital it was for the Executive Committee to abide by the principles of solidarity and unity’.

What was the source of the $250,000 paid to Charlie Dempsey? It looks like Jean-Marie Weber and ISL footed that bill. Years later we discovered in the secret ISL archives a payment to an unknown company for exactly $250,000 … the day before the vote.

Europe was happy. Now Blatter had to comfort Africa. The South African Football Association was so angry that there was talk of taking the obviously crooked decision to arbitration. Blatter talked them out of it and promised that in future the World Cup would be rotated through the continents and Africa would stage the 2010 tournament.