New shocking claim against Fifa
Fifa are investigating claims that a junior member of staff was told to falsify official records of meetings between 2001 and 2010.
|||Fifa are investigating claims that a junior member of staff was told to falsify official records of meetings of the world governing body’s executive committee between 2001 and 2010.
The incendiary accusation was made via Twitter by former Fifa employee Scott Burnett, a Briton who worked as a translator then as an assistant to Fifa’s currently suspended secretary general, Jerome Valcke, for nine years in total.
‘I wrote the minutes of Fifa ExCo meetings from 2001 to 2010. During that period, I was instructed several times to misrepresent discussions,’ Burnett wrote on the social networking site.
Burnett did not provide any more details but with Fifa in a state of perpetual crisis, the claim will increase concerns about malpractice at the highest levels over a long period of time.
Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter is currently suspended as the ethics committee investigates the circumstances in which he sanctioned a £1.3m ‘payment to Uefa president and Fifa vice-president Michel Platini, in 2011. Platini — who, like Blatter, was an ExCo member — is also suspended from Fifa, as is Valcke.
Fifa are probing Valcke’s alleged involvement in a ticket touting operation and alleged misappropriation of Fifa funds.
A Fifa spokesperson said of Burnett’s claim: ‘These are very serious allegations. They will be reviewed as part of the investigation currently being conducted by Fifa with the assistance of outside counsel.’
Burnett has declined to comment further on his claims. He worked as a translator at Fifa from May 2001 to January 2008 and then as assistant to Valcke from January 2008 to summer 2010. He has worked as a freelance writer and translator since and has been a volunteer at Minehead FC in the Somerset County League.
A source close to Burnett said he sent his tweet because ‘he needed to get it off his chest.’
Meanwhile, Uefa chiefs will hold emergency talks tomorrow to decide whether to remain loyal to Platini and have 24 hours to decide if they should back an alternative candidate to succeed Blatter.
Uefa have to decide whether to shoehorn Dutch FA boss Michael van Praag into the race or do a deal with a non-European candidate.
Last night South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale confirmed he will stand. The 62-year-old, who was imprisoned on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela, subsequently served in the Pretoria government.
The other options are problematic. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, whom Uefa backed last May as the anti-Blatter candidate, has ruffled feathers with a series of attacks on Platini, while Asian football chief Sheik Salman of Bahrain has been accused of human rights violations.
One Uefa executive committee member said last night: ‘This is a seriously worrying situation for Europe.’ - Mail On Sunday