Australia “made improper” payments to influence the vote of a FIFA executive member as part of its bid to host the 2022 World Cup, a report released by the football governing body says.
It also tried to “actively conceal” the role of a German lobbyist it hired because of the lobbyist’s ties to another FIFA executive member, according to the explosive findings in the Garcia report.
The 430 page document looks at the decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar and was released by FIFA on Wednesday.
‘Improper payments’
The Australian bidding team made “improper payments” to influence the vote of another member of the FIFA executive council, it said.
That related to Football Federation Australia paying Trinidad & Tobago’s team costs to play a friendly with FFA under-20s team in Cyprus in 2009.
FIFA’s former vice president Jack Warner, who is from Trinidad & Tobago, was named in the emails relating to costs negotiations.
“Those points are strong evidence that FFA made improper payments intended to influence the vote of an Executive Committee member,” the report said.
The FFA’s payment of $500,000 to benefit a “centre of excellence” sports facility in Trinidad and Tobago also came under scrutiny.
“The record provides significant evidence that the AU$500,000 was paid with the intention of influencing Mr Warner’s World Cup vote,” the Garcia report.
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“Australia’s bid team perceived the payment as a benefit for Mr Warner, as did Mr Warner himself.
“Whether the bid team knew Mr Warner would later misappropriate the money or that the COE project itself was designed for such purposes by Mr Warner does not change these facts.”
‘Conceal lobbyist’
The report also scrutinises Australia’s effort to engage lobbyists to help in its subsequently failed bid.
It said Australia tried to “actively conceal” the role of a German lobbyist it hired as part of its bid for the World Cup 2022 because of his ties to a FIFA executive member crucial to the final vote.
The lobbyist, Fedor Radmann, had close ties with Franz Beckenbauer, Germany’s FIFA representative who sat on the committee that voted to decide which country would host the tournament.
The report said emails between officials part of Australia’s bidding team tried to hide Mr Radmann’s role with the team because of his connections with Mr Beckenbauer.
In some cases, officials referred to them simply by first initials.
“In order to maintain maximum confidentiality, I want to name our project ‘Road through Babylon’ and our two key contacts ‘F&F’,” an Australian consultant said in an email.
“I shall send over a password-protected list of aliases as I have no intention to be reading my emails in some paper. The summary is this: It was time well-invested and significant.”
The report’s investigators, however, picked up on the alleged concealment.
“Given that “F&F” are the first initials of Messrs. Radmann and Beckenbauer… appears (Australian consultant) was attempting to mask references to Fedor Radmann and Franz Beckenbauer “[i]n order to maintain maximum confidentiality.”
“The evidence in the record supports a finding that the bid team tried to mask its relationship with Mr Radmann and, by extension, a connection to Mr Beckenbauer.
“Placing Mr Radmann’s contract within Mr Abold’s, sending Mr Radmann messages in blind copy, using initials, and issuing warnings about ‘jeopardizing everything’ when information identifying Mr Radmann’s association with Australia 2022 went public all point to an intent to conceal Mr Radmann’s close relationship with Mr Beckenbauer, and the appearance of impropriety the financial arrangement with Mr Radmann might create, appears to have been the driving force behind the bid team’s actions.”
Rival countries bidding for hosting rights – the US and England - at the time declined to hire Mr Radmann because they considered it inappropriate given the lobbyist’s personal ties to Mr Beckenbauer.
It is still unclear whether Mr Beckenbauer was the sole supporter for Australia’s bid but the Garcia reports notes that the German’s comments to a media report in which he said: “Look, everybody knows whose side I was on.
The German Football Association, DFB, had a gentlemen’s agreement with the Australian FA and thus I had a mandate. I had made my views clear at several occasions, and in public.”
The report said former FIFA president Sepp Blatter was in part responsible for what it called a "flawed process that engendered deep public scepticism" but praised him for some reforms.
