![\"Jack](\"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blogimg\/cdttffC0509088203.jpg\")
\nJack Warner, Sepp Blatter and Dr. Joao Havelange at the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation’s Centennial Dinner at the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macaya on September 05, 2008<\/b><\/p>\n
\nJack Warner, Sepp Blatter and Dr. Joao Havelange at the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation’s Centennial Dinner at the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macaya on September 05, 2008<\/b><\/p>\n
Wednesday, May 1 2013 JACK WARNER\u2019S close friend Dr Joao Havelange, 96, in whose honour the Centre of Excellence in Macoya was named, resigned in disgrace after a Fifa ethics committee found that Havelange \u2014 a former Fifa President \u2014 had taken bribes. Brazilian-born Havelange\u2019s resignation came on the heels of Warner tendering his own resignations first as Minister of National Security, then as UNC chairman and finally as the Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West after a Concacaf Integrity Committee report found him involved in the misappropriation of funds and slammed as \u201cfraudulent their management\u201dof the conduct of the soccer confederation\u2019s affairs. Warner headed Concacaf for 20 years with American Chuck Blazer, who was also knocked in the report, serving as general secretary.<\/p>\n Havelange, in the Fifa finding was described as \u201cmorally and ethically reproachable\u201d for taking kickbacks from a World Cup rights marketing agency. The report by Fifa\u2019s ethics chairman Hans-Joachim Eckert also claimed Nicolas Leoz had received bribes.<\/p>\n Leoz, 84, resigned from Fifa\u2019s executive committee last week, citing health and personal reasons.<\/p>\n The Paraguayan was accused in the Fifa report of being \u201cnot fully candid\u201d in his explanations over the affair.<\/p>\n However, while the report says that payments made in the 1990s to Havelange, who was Fifa president from 1974 to 1988, Leoz and former Fifa executive Ricardo Teixeira \u2013 Havelange\u2019s son-in-law \u2013 qualified as bribes, it was a crime at the time.<\/p>\n Fifa granted International Sport and Leisure (ISL) exclusive rights to market World Cup tournaments to some of the world\u2019s biggest brands. ISL also received millions more from negotiating television broadcast rights.<\/p>\n The company collapsed with huge debts in 2001 and its arrangement with Fifa was subsequently investigated by Swiss authorities. Fifa was eventually forced by the Swiss supreme court to release documents relating to the case after it repeatedly attempted to block the release of the confidential papers.<\/p>\n Fifa president Sepp Blatter announced in July 2012 that Fifa\u2019s new ethics committee would be looking at the bribery allegations. That investigation resulted in the release of the report yesterday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is certain that not inconsiderable amounts were channelled to former Fifa president Havelange and to his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira as well as to Dr Nicolas Leoz, whereby there is no indication that any form of service was given in return by them.<\/p>\n \u201cThese payments were apparently made via front companies in order to cover up the true recipient and are to be qualified as \u201ccommissions\u201d, known today as \u2018bribes\u2019,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n The report added that Havelange and Teixeira were \u201cmorally and ethically reproachable\u201d for accepting the money. Leoz told investigators he donated the money he received to a school project \u2014 but only in January 2008. The report states payments were made between 1992 and May 2000.<\/p>\n Questions over Blatter\u2019s conduct have also been raised in the past, but the report says there is no evidence he received money from the now-defunct ISL.<\/p>\n In response to the publication of the report, Blatter yesterday said: \u201cI note in particular that, in his conclusions, chairman Eckert states that, \u201cthe ISL case is concluded for the Ethics Committee\u201d and that \u201cno further proceedings related to the ISL matter are warranted against any other football official\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI also note with satisfaction that this report confirms that President Blatter\u2019s conduct could not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules. I have no doubt that Fifa, thanks to the governance reform process I proposed, now has the mechanisms and means to ensure such an issue which caused untold damage to the reputation of our institution, does not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n Warner and Havelange have enjoyed an extremely close personal friendship that spanned over two decades at Fifa. Warner has said he was given money to build the Centre of Excellence in Macoya in return for helping Blatter\u2019s election as president of Fifa.<\/p>\n Warner produced letters from Havelange, apparently showing the Fifa loan for the centre, built on land owned by Warner, had been converted into a grant. In return, Warner says he delivered the 30 votes needed for Blatter to beat Lennart Johansson for the Fifa presidency in 1998. The facility in Macoya was later named the Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence. Warner delivered 30 Concacaf votes for Blatter in a block \u2013 and he beat Johansson by 111 votes to 80.<\/p>\n Source: www.newsday.co.tt\/news\/0,177046.html<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n ‘Clumsy’ Sepp Blatter cleared of any wrongdoing<\/a> Sepp Blatter feels the heat over ethics probe<\/a> Jack Warner, Sepp Blatter and Dr. Joao Havelange at the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation’s Centennial Dinner at the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macaya on September 05, 2008 Wednesday, May 1 2013 newsday.co.tt JACK WARNER\u2019S close friend Dr Joao Havelange, 96, in whose honour the Centre of Excellence in Macoya was named, resigned … Continue reading Havelange quits Fifa<\/span>
\nnewsday.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n
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\nHavelange\u2019s resignation, came less than a week after former Fifa vice-president Warner rebutted Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley\u2019s claim in the House of Representatives, that Fifa operates as a world mafia.<\/p>\n
\nLabeled “clumsy” for his part in one of soccer’s biggest corruption scandals, FIFA President Sepp Blatter was cleared of any criminal or ethical wrongdoing in a case involving millions of dollars in bribes for World Cup contracts.<\/p>\n
\nFIFA president Sepp Blatter faced calls to resign today over the findings of an ethics investigation into a bribery scandal involving leading football officials and collapsed marketing partner ISL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"