FIFA: Unpublished audit reveals abuses within the body during the presidency of Sepp Blatter

Barely arrived at the head of FIFA in 2016, Gianni Infantino decided to launch an audit to "review the sums paid, from 2005 to the end of 2015, to more than a hundred leaders, elected officials and members of the administration of the Federation ”, as Le Monde explained on Tuesday. The French daily had access to a “preliminary and confidential version” of the report written by the Deloitte cabinet in charge of the mission. Never made public, it "brings to light the financial mores anchored at the time as well as the abuses committed by many players in world football".

An audit, never made public, reveals the generosity and laissez-faire of FIFA https://t.co/Ysi1MknNGr

The persons in charge of the audit noted "a circumvention of the approval system in force for payment procedures" and insisted on the weakness of the control of expense reimbursements ". Sepp Blatter, Gianni Infantino's predecessor as FIFA president, is among the targets. He would have received "$ 322,375,375 for life insurance, from 2006 to 2009, and $ 477,458 for his private supplementary pension in 2006 and 2007", indicates Le Monde , before specifying that these indemnities "were not necessarily accounted for on the pay stubs and may not have been reported for tax purposes ”.

The former boss of FIFA is truly at the center of this report. He is also cited for reimbursements and donations up to several thousand euros, but the documents available do not allow "to attest if these payments were connected to the work of the Federation," said the daily. Sepp Blatter reacted to this audit: “I am not aware of this document. If FIFA has problems with me, it can contact me. ”

Other former FIFA members are cited in the report, such as Jérôme Valcke, ex-secretary general, who is said to have benefited from nearly $ 265,000 for the rental of an apartment in Rio, and the purchase of luxury goods. According to Mr. Valcke, these "professional expenses have been validated by the finance division of FIFA," reports the French daily. Issa Hayatou, former interim president of the international body, Worawi Makudi, former official of the Thai Federation, and Reynald Temarii, former Tahitian representative to FIFA, also appeared in the audit.

Gianni Infantino, who "had undertaken to restore the coat of arms of the body, undermined by corruption cases", did not really keep his promise. Le Monde says report was not released "for contractual and confidentiality reasons", but Colin Smith, a member of the entourage of the current FIFA boss, was pinned by Deloitte . Coincidence?

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