FIFA says Blatter, top execs got $80M over 5 years

Published 1:13 pm Saturday, June 4, 2016

FIFA has revealed that disgraced former officials Sepp Blatter, Jerome Valcke and Markus Kattner awarded themselves raises and World Cup bonuses totaling $80 million over their last five years in office.

Some of the contracted payments appear to break Swiss law, and evidence will be given to American and Swiss federal prosecutors who are investigating corruption implicating the world soccer body, lawyers for FIFA said Friday.

“The evidence appears to reveal a coordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totaling more than 79 million Swiss francs — in just the last five years,” said Bill Burck of Quinn Emanuel, the U.S. law firm retained by FIFA during its corruption crisis.

Email newsletter signup

FIFA revealed details of the contracts of its former president Blatter, fired former secretary general Valcke and fired finance director Kattner one day after police raided FIFA to seize evidence for the Swiss investigation.

Blatter’s lawyers said his payment arrangements at FIFA were above board.

“We look forward to showing FIFA that Mr. Blatter’s compensation payments were proper, fair and in line with the heads of major professional sports leagues around the world,” said U.S. lawyer Richard Cullen in a statement made on behalf of the former head of world soccer.

Blatter got a 12 million Swiss francs ($12 million) bonus after the successful 2014 World Cup in Brazil and would have been due another 12 million Swiss francs for completing his 2015-19 presidential term, the contracts reveal.

The secretly agreed bonuses were significantly more than Blatter’s base salary — 3 million Swiss francs ($3 million) in 2015 — which FIFA published in March.

Valcke got a $2 million basic salary before being fired, but was awarded a $10 million World Cup bonus for 2014 and was due $11 million from the 2018 tournament in Russia.

The police raid Thursday included searches in the office of Kattner, who was fired last week.

“Documents and electronic data were seized and will now be examined to determine their relevance to the ongoing proceedings,” the Swiss federal prosecution office said Friday.

Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber opened criminal proceedings against Blatter last September, and against Valcke in March.

Both are suspected of criminal mismanagement of FIFA money. Blatter and Valcke deny wrongdoing but were banned for six and 12 years, respectively, by FIFA’s ethics committee.