Scandal could claim fifa exec

FINGERED :Brazil's Ricardo Teixeira
FINGERED :Brazil's Ricardo Teixeira

GENEVA - Sepp Blatter expects at least one member of Fifa's 24-man ruling panel to leave his post because of the ISL kickbacks case.

"It does look like some people won't be able to stay on the executive committee," Blatter told a German newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

Blatter's comment could refer to Ricardo Teixeira, who heads the Brazilian 2014 World Cup organising committee and has been linked to the 10-year-old scandal that has cast a shadow over much of the Fifa president's reign.

Fifa has promised to publish Swiss court papers next month identifying senior officials who took payments from ISL. The marketing agency owned World Cup television rights until its 2001 bankruptcy with debts of around $300million (R2445 million).

In 2010, Fifa said two senior officials repaid kickbacks then worth $5million (R40.5 million) on condition of anonymity. It has since blocked the court in Zug from releasing documents.

British broadcaster the BBC has named the officials as Teixeira and his former father-in-law Joao Havelange, the longtime Fifa president who Blatter succeeded in 1998.

Blatter, who has committed to wide-ranging anti-corruption reforms, will publish the ISL dossier on December 17 after his executive committee meets in Tokyo. An as yet undisclosed outside body will later advise Fifa's high command on what action to take if it finds members guilty of wrongdoing.

"Either they would have to resign or wait to find out what the independent investigators decide," Blatter told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Brazilian federal prosecutors have said they want the document to help investigate possible money-laundering offences by Teixeira.

In an interview also published on Fifa's website, Blatter distanced himself from some of his executive committee, saying the members "have varying concepts of ethics and morals".

" I didn't choose them and I can't be held accountable for their actions. I'm the figurehead of this organisation but I'm not a dictator," he said.

However, Blatter defended Issa Hayatou, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, who was also named by the BBC for taking around $20000 from ISL in 1995. Hayatou said it was a gift for the governing body.

"According to the CAF accounts, which we also examine, the money has been correctly accounted for," Blatter said.

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