Arsenal steal march on City
Walcott wows
But the vote had a big part to play in the eight-year bans handed out Monday to FIFA president Blatter and Platini, a FIFA vice president and head of European soccer’s ruling body, UEFA.
The punishments given by FIFA’s ethics committee stemmed from financial inquiries that were sparked by suspicions about the 2010 vote, when two host countries were selected concurrently for the first time.
For Blatter, Monday’s verdicts also contained a bitter irony.
Blatter himself had initiated the phase in the investigation that ultimately led to him being exiled by FIFA’s ethics judge from the organization he had run for 17 years.
Facing a fresh wave of pressure and suspicion around FIFA in November 2014, Blatter lodged a criminal complaint with Swiss authorities, authorizing them to receive the full secret World Cup bidding investigation he claims to have never seen.
“If we had anything to hide, we would hardly be taking this matter to the Office of the Attorney General ... (it) shows that FIFA is not opposed to transparency,” Blatter said at the time with typical bravado.
It’s a decision Blatter will be regretting, even if he had little control over a
LONDON, Dec 22, (AFP): Theo Walcott scored a brilliant opening goal as Arsenal established themselves as the number one challengers to Premier League leaders Leicester City by overcoming Manchester City 2-1.
Walcott curled home a beauty in the 33rd minute before Mesut Ozil teed up Olivier Giroud to score his 12th goal in 14 games in first-half stoppage time, with Yaya Toure’s classy reply for City coming too late.
Victory took Arsene Wenger’s side to within two points of Leicester, leaving City four points further back in third place after a third defeat in five league games and fifth of the campaign in total.
Though Alexis Sanchez missed out again for Arsenal due to a hamstring injury, there was much to celebrate for the home side, who have now gone five games without defeat against City, including the impressive Ozil taking his tally of assists for the season to 15. move requested by FIFA judge HansJoachim Eckert.
As federal prosecutors started to trawl through some 900 pages of FIFA evidence amassed by American attorney Michael Garcia they switched their focus to bank accounts linked to the 2010 voters.
In May, on the day Zurich police arrested FIFA officials on behalf of their American counterparts investigating soccer corruption, Swiss authorities also seized data from the governing body’s headquarters across town. By that point, Swiss financial institutions had already handed over bank documents to the attorney general, who was building a case against FIFA officials.
As bank accounts were frozen, forensic software flagged up as suspicious a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2 million) Platini received from Blatter in early 2011.
“How they found out? This is not a secret because Swiss banks are obliged to notify the Swiss authorities for six years now since all these financial controls through a Swiss organization called FINMA,” was Blatter’s assessment on Monday about the discovery of the payment that remained a public secret until recently.
“They are obliged if they feel a payment is something high in a personal account they have to (inform). So in 2011, Michel Platini received in his personal account by FIFA this 2 million Swiss francs and then they have given this information to the Swiss authorities.”
As an executive committee was concluding in September, prosecutors pounced on FIFA HQ and immediately questioned Blatter and Platini about the payment. Blatter was declared a suspect while Platini was considered “between a witness and an accused person.”
The seriousness of the allegations meant FIFA had to suspend two of its most powerful officials — Platini serves as a vice president, alongside his UEFA presidency — as a full ethics investigation was conducted in parallel to the criminal case.