Swiss government to investigate FIFA over alleged vote-selling
The Swiss federal government is set to launch an investigation into the vote-selling allegations that saw FIFA's ethics committee suspend several of the body's officials on 18 November.
Six officials, including executive committee members Reynald Temarii of Tahiti and Nigeria's Amos Adamu, were handed fines and bans by the ethics committee for their involvement in the vote-selling incident, which was revealed by the
Sunday Times in September.
In the investigation, two of the newspaper's reporters disguised as American lobbyists for the United States' bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
The pair allegedly extracted promises from Adamu and Temarii that the pair would vote for the bid in return for substantial football-related investments in their home countries.
With the ethics committee having reached an internal verdict, Matthias Remund, director of the Swiss Federal Office for Sport, told the
Guardian that his organisation, which answers to the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports, is due to launch an investigation into the affair.
"The case will be analysed to determine to what extent we have applicable law in Switzerland, in order to be able to pursue offences which are relevant from a criminal justice point of view or which offend competition law," Remund said.
"Private corruption in that legal sense does not exist in Switzerland. And in particular sporting associations and clubs without economic or commercial purpose are excluded from that purpose."
The investigation was backed by Swiss sports minister Uli Maurer, who said it is high time for Switzerland to put transnational organisations with their headquarters in the country under more scrutiny.
"It's clear that Switzerland is obliged to do something to fight corruption as we have lots of international federations with headquarters in Switzerland and we want to set an example in solving this problem," Maurer told the
Guardian.
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