When FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his execs touched down in Sao
Paulo, ahead of the Brazil World Cup, "waiting in their luxury rooms was a
goody bag to make them feel more wanted," according to Calvert & Blake of the LONDON TIMES. Inside were the usual football trinkets Blatter and his execs "are
showered with as they travel the globe" -- but nestled between the Brazilian
national team shirt and mascot, the officials found a "gift of extraordinary
value."
It was a limited-edition commemorative watch created by Parmigiani, "the luxury Swiss brand that sponsors the Brazilian football federation (CBF)," and it was worth $25,000. The gift "should have rung alarm bells" for Blatter and FIFA’s 26 other Exco members, who themselves voted in the code of ethics that bans them from accepting gifts of more than "symbolic or trivial value." But while three took a principled stand and reported the "excessive" gift to FIFA, the majority pocketed the watches. U.S. Exco member Sunil Gulati, Australian member Moya Dodd and Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan unwittingly caused FIFA "acute embarrassment by handing back the watches" and alerting FIFA’s ethics committee. Unbeknown to them, the organization "had planned to give each Exco member two more watches" worth up to $42,000 each from the World Cup sponsor, the luxury Swiss brand Hublot, at the end of the tournament. However, "this plan had to be scrapped" after FIFA’s ethics investigator Michael Garcia ruled that it would breach the rules. Garcia was called in to investigate, "but no steps were taken to force the other officials to return them." They "will now be ordered to hand them back." FIFA Communications & Public Affairs Dir Walter De Gregorio "responded by banning the Exco from speaking to The Sunday Times and leaking a tame version of the story to another newspaper" (LONDON TIMES, 9/14). In, L.A., Kevin Baxter commented FIFA "is playing host to a conference on ethics." Think about that for a second: "The global sports organization most synonymous with corruption and obfuscation is holding a forum focused on morality and openness." Corporate communications, ethics and compliance expert Jeffrey Thinnes said, "I thought there was a typo. Are you serious?" The Belgium-based World Forum for Ethics in Business "is throwing its weight behind the one-day event, the World Summit on Ethics in Sports, to be held Friday at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland" (L.A. TIMES, 9/13).
