Blatter: I can't punish Havelange

FIFA chief says kickbacks were not illegal when former boss reigned

FIFA president Sepp Blatter insisted on Thursday that he did not have the power to punish former supremo Joao Havelange after the 96-year-old Brazilian was accused of taking bribes.

Court documents released in Switzerland revealed Havelange, FIFA president for 24 years before Blatter stepped into the hotseat in 1998, pocketed at least 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1,522,129) and FIFA executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira at least 12.74 million.

The bribes, made by International Sport and Leisure (ISL), were detailed in documents made public by Switzerland's supreme court and published by the BBC on Wednesday.

FIFA's discredited Swiss-based marketing partner collapsed in 2001 with debts of about $300 million.

But Blatter went on the attack on Thursday, insisting he was powerless to sanction his predecessor.

"I don't have the power to call him to account. The congress named him as honorary president. Only the Congress can decide his future," Blatter told www.fifa.com.

Blatter insisted payments were not illegal under Swiss law at the time.

"Known what? That commission was paid? Back then, such payments could even be deducted from tax as a business expense," he said.

"Today, that would be punishable under law. You can't judge the past on the basis of today's standards. Otherwise it would end up with moral justice. I can't have known about an offence that wasn't even one."

Blatter admitted he had been referred to as "P1" in the court documents.

"It was the Swiss Federal Court that decided to make the publication of the ISL non-prosecution order anonymous. As far as I am concerned, the whole document could have been published clean, to put an end to the speculation once and for all," he said.

"However, the Federal Court stated that the 'names of all non-accused third parties' should be made anonymous. I am not accused, so I have been made anonymous as P1, which quite honestly is not difficult to find out."

FIFA published the Swiss court's report on its website on Wednesday and in a statement world soccer's governing body emphasized that while Havelange and Teixeira were identified, Blatter was not.

"The decision of the Swiss Federal Court also confirms that only two foreign officials will be named as part of the process and that ... the FIFA president is not involved in the case," the statement stressed.

The court documents did reveal that FIFA chiefs had knowledge Havelange and Teixeira had been paid bribes by ISL.

It also disclosed FIFA had agreed to pay 2.5 million Swiss francs in compensation - but only on the condition that criminal proceedings against Havelange and Teixeira were dropped.

Havelange, who remains FIFA's honorary president, stepped down after a 48-year spell as a member of the International Olympic Committee last December, just days before an ethics hearing into his links with ISL.

Havelange was accused by a BBC documentary in 2010 of kickbacks totaling $1 million from ISL for granting lucrative World Cup contracts.

(China Daily 07/14/2012 page15)