Day -876. WorldCup2018.
Tennis has joined the shady-world-of-sports party, joining Fifa and the
IAAF, the Amateur (ahem) Athletics Federation. Just like Fifa and the
IAAF it's all allegations of course and tennis doesn't yet have a
Blatter, or Platini, or Warner, or Valcke....oh, I could go on forever.
But just when Fifa thought they were safely in the news background,
today we found out that Blatter is still receiving his salary from
Fifa, despite being suspended for three months and now banned from all
football activities for eight years. Banned. Can't do his job. Yet his
employers, who banned him, are still paying him. I could leave you with
that thought, but there’s more.
The compensation sub-committee of
FIFA's Audit and Compliance Committee announced that, according to
Blatter's contract, his salary cannot be stopped until his term as
President ends on February 26th. But he is not being paid his bonuses
because he is not carrying out his duties of supervising the
organisation. Yes, members of the sub-committee, because he is banned.
Yet, you are still paying him.
Andreas Bantel, spokesman for
Fifa’s audit and compliance committee, told Reuters: "Until the election
of a new president on 26 February, Mr Blatter is the elected president
and therefore - according to his contract - is entitled to receive his
remuneration.” (Reuters.com) Mr. Bantel, the elected President is banned from having anything to do with Fifa because they, you, banned him.
I could also leave you with that thought but as you know with Fifa,
there is always more. Not only are Fifa paying their President who is no
longer the President, they are also paying Isaa Hayatou, who is the
Acting President. Yes, Fifa are currently paying two Presidents.
Now what would UEFA say about all this? UEFA have been the prominent
proponents of the need for football to clean up its' act. So they would
take the opportunity of their President being banned for his dealings
with Blatter to take a very different stand to that of Fifa. Yes? No.
Platini is being paid "until further notice". So there you go. Always
make sure you have a clause in your work contracts ensuring that you
will be paid, even if you are banned from doing any work for the company
that bans you. Interestingly, despite the bans, Platini and Blatter
haven't actually been fired.
Phew. So that's it. No, just a
little bit more. Jeffrey Webb was the President of CONCACAF, the
North/Central and Caribbean federation. He was arrested in May on
suspicion of bribery and kick-back offences as part of the US
investigation into corruption in football. What happened to him? His
contract was terminated and he received no more money from CONCACAF. He
is probably cursing that he didn't have the Blatter/Platini clause in
his contract. But, at least, he can ponder his bad luck while he sits by
his pool at his palatial house in Georgia, after he was allowed to
leave New York as his court-imposed restrictions were relaxed. And he
can look at that pool and smile, if the prosecutors' allegations that he
built that pool with kick-back money are true.
The world of football is truly a magical one.
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