Television rights are the main source of litigation for Fifa, which is also Fifa’s financial windfall. The “Fifagate”, which began with the arrest of seven world soccer leaders in Zurich on May 27, 2015, focuses on the “racket” that was perpetrated by South American officials to obtain TV rights for continental football competitions.
In a case involving the Worlds-2026/30, Qatari Nasser al-Khelaifi, president of beIN Media, Paris SG and Jerome Valcke, former secretary général of the International Federation are accused of concluding a pact that fell under “unfair managing”.
The fall of these two former leaders, which was banned from world football in 2015, conceals a double dispute. First, the main case, which targets a payment of 2,000,000 Swiss Francs (1.8 Million euros) from Fifa and Michel Platini in 2011, validated by the then-president Sepp Blatter, without a written contract.
Platini (66), and Blatter (85) are being tried in Switzerland for fraud, unfair management, breach of trust and false titles. The men claim that it is a residual of their salary as advisers from the period 1999-2002.
Michel Platini, a former UEFA boss, sees in this an “intention” to oust him form the presidency of Fifa, which seemed to be his, in favor Gianni Infantino.
In 2016, Infantino was elected with the promise to “restore the image of Fifa”. Since July 2020, the same Infantino is being investigated for “incitement to abuse authority” and “violation of official secrecy”. and “obstructing criminal proceedings”.
He is accused by Swiss justice of having three secret meetings with Michael Lauber in 2016 and 2017, when he was the head of the public prosecution’s office for the confederation. These meetings were suspected to have been in collusion between Lauber and Fifa, which is a civil party in most procedures. For his part, the Italian-Swiss (51) says that it was just a matter of showing that “the new Fifa is a thousand leagues away from the old one”.
Fifa’s most embarrassing investigation is the one that it conducts on its queen competition. It aims to give Qatar the 2022 World Cup organization. Suspections of vote buying in the 2010 vote prompted a complaint to Fifa at the end 2014 to the Swiss justice system. The Swiss justice system has been investigating the matter since May 2015, for money laundering and unfair administration.
While Qatar is the main focus of attention, corruption suspicions are also present at the 2018 World Cups held in Russia and South Africa in 2010. Prescription has resulted in the end of the trial regarding the attribution to Germany of the Mondial-2006.