President Sepp Blatter
announced that former United States attorney Michael J Garcia and German
judge Hans-Joachim Eckert had joined the organization to probe
allegations of wrongdoing.
Their first task will be
to investigate a Swiss court document after an investigation into
alleged illegal payments made by FIFA marketing partner International
Sports and Leisure (ISL) to former FIFA president Joao Havelange and
former executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira.
The report found that
Havelange had received at least 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1.53 million)
and Teixeira was paid at least CHF 12.4 million ($12.64 million) from
marketing partner ISL.
Last week Blatter
admitted that he did know about the alleged bribes handed to former FIFA
executives, but insisted he didn't think they were illegal at the time.
As well as the new
appointments, Blatter also announced a new FIFA Code of Ethics which
includes provision to remove time limitations for the prosecution of
bribery and corruption cases.
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He said the new
two-chamber court would help to prosecute cases more quickly and could
look retrospectively at old cases, including the process surrounding the
decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar
respectively.
"I don't see any
limitation if anything has happened," he told a press conference at
FIFA's headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, when asked about the ISL
case.
"We have a new set of
rules and regulations, we have new regulations for the Ethics Committee,
we have no statute of limitations there.
"What you are mentioning
right now, this is a case that has been taken to the Supreme Court in
Switzerland, where a decision was taken, so FIFA will now look into only
moral and ethical issues."
Garcia was appointed
head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in the Department
of Homeland Security by former president George W. Bush.
He has prosecuted a number of high-profile cases including the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
Eckert is a specialist
when it comes to big bribery charges, and presided over an investigation
into German telecommunications giant Siemens that uncovered
billion-dollar payments.
Blatter spoke of his
delight at the dual appointment on his official Twitter page, writing:
"Major milestone for our governance process: Ethics Code approved,
independent chairmen for investigatory & adjudicatory chambers.
"I remain 100% committed
to reforms and FIFA fully backs Michael Garcia and Hans-Joachim Eckert,
the two new independent chairmen.
"On my request, ISL file
will be given to the new Ethics Committee. ISL is settled legally --
now it will be settled also morally."
Meanwhile, Mohamed bin
Hammam, a former challenger to Blatter for the FIFA presidency, has been
suspended for 30 days over new corruption allegations.
The Qatari was banned
from soccer for life after a FIFA probe found him guilty of offering
bribes in return for votes during his challenge to Blatter, which he
withdrew hours before his ban.
He was temporarily
replaced as head of the Asian Football Confederation, after serving for
nine years as president. Bin Hammam has repeatedly protested his
innocence and has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport with a
verdict due this week.
But the AFC announced on their website that he had been suspended after an inspection of the organization's accounts.
The audit concerned "the
negotiation and execution of certain contracts and with the financial
transactions made in and out of AFC bank accounts and his personal
account during the tenure of Mr Bin Hammam's presidency," it said.
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