FIFA donates 48 'bribe' luxury watches to charity
Lausanne, Switzerland (AFP) Nearly 50 luxury watches confiscated from
football officials who had received them as "gifts" ahead of the World
Cup in Brazil have been donated to charity, FIFA's ethics committee said
Thursday.
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Fiorentina’s Croatian forward Nikola Kalinic (L) challenges
Basel’s Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Elneny during the UEFA
Europa League group I football match between Basel and
Fiorentina at the St Jakob stadium in Basel on November 26,
2015. AFP |
The watches, estimated to be worth 25,000 Swiss francs ($24,400,
23,000 euros) apiece, were given to streetfootballworld, an
international network of groups which uses football to help young
people.
Ahead of last year's World Cup, the Brazilian Football Confederation
handed out 65 gift bags each containing a Parmigiani timepiece to FIFA
Executive Committee officials and members of the 32 competing
associations.
The gifts created a furore at the time but now disgraced FIFA bosses,
including president Sepp Blatter, denied any corruption. However, the
ethics committee's investigative branch has determined that the watches
were "un-authorised gifts," and called on officials to hand them over.
The ethics committee said in a statement its probe had determined
that "from the initially intended 65 watches offered by the CBF to
football officials, several officials had, in fact, not received a
watch".
The football charity will "directly invest all resources generated
through the sale of the watches into initiatives across Brazil that use
football to drive social change," it said, adding that the matter was
now considered closed.
When the ethics committee ordered that the watches be handed over in
September 2014, now embattled UEFA president Michel Platini publicly
balked, saying he was "surprised" by the decision.
"I was not raised like that," he said, declaring it was bad manners
to return gifts and insisting he would instead establish the true worth
of the watch and contribute the amount to a charity.
Platini, who until recently was the favourite to take over the reins
at FIFA, has been suspended for 90 days and could now be facing a
lifetime ban over a suspect payment, amid the massive scandal rocking
world football's governing body.
Current FIFA president Blatter also brushed aside the watch
controversy when it hit the headlines last year. |
