Interpol put two top former FIFA officials on its “red notice” wanted list at the request of U.S. authorities on Wednesday as their investigation into corruption at soccer’s governing body gathered pace.
South Africa confirmed it had given $10 million meant to help pay for the 2010 World Cup to a soccer official indicted last week in the United States, but said the payment was not a bribe as U.S. prosecutors allege.
The latest developments in the scandal engulfing FIFA came a day after Sepp Blatter stunned international soccer by resigning as the world body’s president shortly before it emerged that he too was under investigation by U.S. law enforcement. Blatter was not on Interpol’s list.
A source close to FIFA said it was Blatter’s advisers who had told him he must reverse course and quit. Critics pointed to the widening criminal probe, disquiet among sponsors, and pressure from European soccer body UEFA as possible reasons.
With Blatter saying he no longer had the mandate he sought, UEFA postponed a meeting due on Saturday where there might have been talk of a revolt against FIFA.
UEFA had opposed Blatter, and Michel Platini, the UEFA president who is favorite to succeed the 79-year-old Swiss national, had urged him not to stand for re-election as FIFA faced the worst crisis in its 111-year history.
“Considering new information is revealed every day, I believe it is wiser to take time to assess the situation, so together we can take a position on this issue,” Platini, a former French soccer star, said.
As the FIFA crisis unfolds, Interpol, the international police body, issued wanted person alerts for Jack Warner, a former president of CONCACAF, which governs soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, and Nicolas Leoz, the former head of South America’s soccer federation.
The others subject to the so-called “red notices” — which are not arrest warrants — are Alejandro Burzaco, Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, and Jose Margulies, a Brazilian who headed two offshore companies that were involved in broadcasting soccer matches.
They are among soccer officials and sports media and promotion executives facing U.S. corruption charges involving more than $150 million in bribes. www.interpol.int
BRIBE DENIED
FIFA has denied that another senior official, Secretary General Jerome Valcke, was involved in a $10 million payment approved by the South African Football Association that lies at the heart of the U.S. investigation.
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