FIFA to re-examine ISL document
Reuters - Tuesday 17 July 2012, 14:01
FIFA agreed to re-examine the
details of the ISL case following the release of court documents
and appointed Michael Garcia of the United States as head of the
committee which will lead the investigation.
Garcia was elected to head the investigative branch of
FIFA's newly-reformed ethics committee while German judge
Hans-Joachim Eckert was appointed to head the tribunal which
will judge cases and hand out sanctions.
"He [Garcia] will have not only the right but the duty to
have this case analysed on ethics and moral grounds and then to
report back to the executive committee," FIFA president Sepp
Blatter told reporters.
"The chairmen of both chambers are totally independent, this
had been requested by FIFA's Congress," added Blatter.
The election of Garcia was a surprise as it had been widely
reported that the task would be given to top international
prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, best known for pursuing war
criminals.
A Swiss prosecutor said in a legal document released last
week that former FIFA president Joao Havelange and former
executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira took multi-million
bribes on World Cup deals in the 1990s.
The bribes were paid by FIFA's former marketing partner ISL
which collapsed in 2001.
Blatter was general secretary under Havelange and attention
has centered on whether he knew about the payments.
Havelange is FIFA's honorary president while Teixeira quit
as head of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) earlier
this year.