Strasbourg, 23.04.2012 – It is “difficult to imagine” that FIFA’s leadership would not have known of significant sums paid to certain FIFA officials in the context of contracts with collapsed Swiss sports promoter ISMM/ISL for World Cup television rights, according to the author of a report for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) due to be debated on Wednesday this week.

An addendum to the report “Good governance and ethics in sport” by Francois Rochebloine (France, EPP/CD), made public today, publishes the full testimony given by Thomas Hildbrand, the Swiss special prosecutor handling the 2001 collapse of ISMM/ISL, to PACE’s Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media at a closed hearing in Paris earlier this year. Mr Hildbrand provided detailed breakdowns of payments made to two persons whom he does not name for legal reasons, though he states: “both were top officials of FIFA and one still is”. He also indicates that one of them was the President of the Football Association of a South American country. (more...)