Omertà: Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family

Omertà! Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family
By Andrew Jennings

‘In Omertà I show that the leadership of FIFA, under Brazil’s João Havelange and now Sepp Blatter, tick all the boxes defining an Organised Crime Syndicate,’ says Andrew Jennings.

‘My investigations took me from confronting the Mafia in Palermo, to FIFA’s glass and marble palace in Zurich, then to the gang wars in Rio, following the trail of briefcases stuffed with gold bars.

‘I had wonderful help and encouragement in Brazil from activists, reporters, fans, academics, police, prosecutors, a brave woman judge, honest politicians – and one of Brazil’s greatest ever footballers.

‘The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be played against a backdrop of the rage of more than half of Brazil’s football-loving population. If demonstrators are killed by the out-of-control riot police, the responsibility rests with Sepp Blatter who years ago endorsed the corruption now engulfing the tournament.

‘In the 1990s I investigated the International Olympic Committee, police corruption and Organised Crime. During breaks I reported from wars in Beirut, Chechnya and Central America. Then it was time to investigate Sepp Blatter’s FIFA, grown fat from bountiful World Cup TV and marketing revenues and not scrutinised by the sports media.

‘At the beginning I thought there would be only a few crooks to expose at FIFA. Then terrific sources from inside the organisation made contact, giving me boxes of FIFA’s confidential internal financial records. I realised that the magnitude of the corruption — and the cover-ups — was breath-taking. It was not a few crooks. As an institution, FIFA was mobbed up!

‘With other reporters I have exposed the organised corruption at the top of FIFA. The scandals of recent years have been marked by the silence of FIFA’s leadership. Like a true gangland boss, Blatter refuses to condemn any of his colleagues forced out for wrongdoing. The global brands that fund FIFA are equally silent. Omertà is their rule.

‘Some of the heaviest punishments inflicted on football officials by Blatter during the last four years of scandals have not been for corruption. They have been for talking to undercover reporters – for breaking the vow of Omertà.

‘Some of Blatter’s Executive Committee are proved to be outright crooks. Others, enjoying fabulous salaries, fees and bonuses, access to World Cup tickets and unaudited development grants look the other way, mouths and eyes glued closed, upholding Omertà. Football’s money is the grease lubricating the FIFA machine and keeping Sepp Blatter in power.

‘Omertà reveals that ‘Blatter’s ‘reform process’ is bogus. He has changed FIFA’s rules to protect himself, rigged the evidence against him and hired expensive investigators to exonerate him
It has cost FIFA millions of dollars to make him the sports world’s Great Untouchable.’
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Andrew Jennings presents investigation films for BBC-TV, has written five books on corruption and thousands of articles for newspapers, magazines and academic journals. Foul! — his first investigation of FIFA corruption has been published in 16 languages since 2006. Blatter went to court in Switzerland to have it banned – and failed!

Andrew has won numerous awards for his journalism and lectures world-wide on corruption and investigation techniques. Sepp Blatter banned him from FIFA press conferences in 2003 when Andrew disclosed that football’s President pays himself a huge secret bonus every year.

Omertà’s Foreword is by former football star, Romario, now a Congressman in Brasilia.
The cover illustration is by Olé Anderson. In 2013 Blatter persuaded a court to ban Olé’s cartoons in Switzerland.

Omertà will soon be available in several other languages.
More disclosures at: transparencybooks.com