BBC Panorama - FIFA: Football's Shame

Graphic link to transcript of BBC Panorama (PDF format)

The things they say...

‘Neither FIFA nor its President have anything to hide, nor do they wish to.’

Blatter press release, 28 January, 2003

BBC Panorama Reporter Andy Davies:

‘A one million franc bribe … is it not correct that Mr Blatter asked that it be moved to the FIFA official who was named on the payment slip?’

FIFA Director of Communications Markus Siegler:

‘If you do not stop now, then we call the security and we put you out.’

FIFA Press conference, Zurich, Tuesday, 11 April 2006

‘I am deputy chairman of the finance committee of FIFA. I oversee a budget of US$2 billion and I have never seen one iota of corruption.’

Jack Warner, Trinidad Express 12 December 2004

‘Lying and deception and bad faith are standard operating procedure at FIFA.’

Adam C. Silverstein, a lawyer for MasterCard in their successful action against FIFA, New York, December 1, 2006

‘I do not believe a Jew can ever be a referee at that level (Argentine Premier League) because it’s hard work and, you know, Jews don’t like hard work.’

FIFA senior vice-president and chair of Finance Committee, Julio Grondona, 5 July 2003. Buenos Aires

‘FIFA is a healthy, clean and transparent organisation with nothing to hide. There is huge public interest in FIFA, therefore we have to be as transparent as possible. We will try to communicate in a more open way so the world can believe us and be proud of their federation.’

FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi, January 2003, on fifa.com

‘FIFA: Football’s Shame?’

Watch the film – Read the script

This Panorama programme raised the question - is FIFA institutionally corrupt? We revisited corruption allegations we had previously made about Sepp Blatter, Nicolas Leoz, Jack Warner Issa Hayatou, Joao Havelange and Ricardo Teixeira – and revealed more!

We scored a world first, interviewing one of the biggest dealers from the secondary ticket market.

Atle Barlaup told us that up to 40% of World Cup tickets are provided by FIFA officials. He talked on camera because he was fed up with the same FIFA officials getting his couriers arrested in South Africa in 2010.

THE BAGMEN AT UEFA’S CONGRESS

We filmed at Uefa’s congress in Paris in March 2011 and were astonished that the two biggest bagmen in world football had been allowed in. Jean-Marie Weber again declined to talk and Fedor Radmann – as ever with his close associate Franz Beckenbauer – ran away!

We interviewed undercover reporter Jonathan Calvert from the London Sunday Times about their dramatic disclosures of about bribes to obtain the rights to host the World Cup – and we used some of their secretly filmed footage.

Within days of the screening, new bribery allegations were made that led to Jack Warner being suspended and Mohamed Bin Hammam withdrawing from the Presidential race.

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