It's exactly half past six on Wednesday 27th May.
We'll have all the latest news and sport for you in just a moment.
We are following a developing story with worldwide implications.
FIFA, the multibillion-dollar organization that governs soccer, is under fire.
A bombshell, an earthquake at the International Football Federation.
In May 2015, the house of FIFA started crumbling.
In the past hour, a number of officials
from world football's governing body, FIFA,
have been arrested on suspicion of corruption.
The news broke
that people had been arrested right in the seat of power in Zurich.
Senior members of the FIFA Executive Committee
and some officials.
We've only had the information in the last couple of hours, Amanda,
but what do you know about the arrests?
This is an FBI investigation.
They raided one of the main FIFA hotels, the Baur au Lac…
And these were individuals at the top
of not only the biggest sport on the planet,
but in many ways the biggest business.
In this car, one of them is taken away
from people's sight.
Every few minutes, we get a call that a new person is now under arrest.
We'd been working so hard for so long to try to control all this,
so this moment would happen in the right way.
I remember I was driving from home to FIFA, and I got a call telling me,
"We should meet because we have a big problem."
POLICE
It was a very difficult day. The worst day.
People I knew quite well had just been arrested.
But we didn't know the full extent of it until we saw the indictments,
uh, which was some hours later.
Not long afterwards,
the Department of Justice announced the indictment
with however many names on it, including some of the biggest names
in the Executive Committee.
Basically, the people who decide
which country's gonna host the World Cup, who run the organization.
We are here to announce the unsealing of charges and the arrest of individuals,
as part of our long-running investigation into bribery and corruption
in the world of organized soccer.
The first time you read the indictments, you're like, "Hold on."
You're not just saying these people did it.
You might be suggesting FIFA's responsible for this.
The 47-count indictment against these individuals
includes charges of racketeering, wire fraud,
and money laundering conspiracies, spanning two decades.
The way Loretta Lynch and Jim Comey talked about FIFA,
they use charges that normally are associated with the Mafia
or, uh, Mexican drug cartels.
If the US Department of Justice names FIFA as a criminal party,
it's… it's game, set, and match here.
The organization will just collapse.
Uh, nobody is above or beyond the law.
They went to New York to send a message to international soccer.
"You haven't cleaned up your house. We are coming to clean up your house."
This really is the World Cup of fraud.
And today, we're issuing FIFA a red card.
Suddenly, the corporate veil fell,
and you could see quite how much corruption
and money-making and self-interest and greed
and politicking and backstabbing there really was
behind what they called "the FIFA family."
-Mr. Blatter? -Mr. Blatter?
Will you resign, Mr. Blatter?
And Sepp Blatter was the head of that family.
He was the Godfather of football.
In his eyes, he was untouchable.
In most governments,
if two vice presidents and several members of the executive committee are indicted,
the president would resign or would be forced to resign.
Why would I resign?
To resign would be like saying I am responsible
for everything that's happening.
Corruption was endemic in FIFA for decades,
right through to the fall in 2015.
They held important responsibilities at every level,
from building soccer fields for children in developing countries
to organizing the World Cup.
They were expected to uphold the rules
that keep soccer honest and to protect the integrity of the game.
Instead, they corrupted the business of worldwide soccer
to serve their interests and to enrich themselves.
But that's not true. This has been created.
The institution is not corrupt. There is no corruption in football.
RED CARD FOR FIFA NO WORLD CUP WITHOUT WORKERS RIGHTS
Nothing was done by him to stop this bullet train.
My conscience is clear.
Because I cannot be responsible for that.
FIFA became toxic. FIFA became a criminal organization.
The job I have done in FIFA is a good job.
-Let's go, FIFA! Let's go, FIFA!
I didn't realize how much power they had.
I didn't realize they controlled governments, banks.
I just thought, "These are the guys that make the rules."
Being a member of FIFA is like being in a secret garden you never wanna leave.
There's an unspoken code that you can do whatever you want.
You're a master of the sporting universe
and more powerful, in many cases, than politicians and others
because they come and go, but you stay in that job,
you stay in that seat year after year.
Regarding the arrests carried out,
this is another obvious attempt of the US
to extend its jurisdiction to other countries.
-Qatar!
We were all flabbergasted.
My immediate reaction was that they had bought this.
The attack was coming on us, on FIFA.
Unprecedented attacks, coming from left, right, and center.
My name will always be in "corruption, corruption, corruption."
This is the story of the history of FIFA,
which is partly the history of football itself,
and the history of how corruption takes root
in different places around the world.
It's still, by far,
the biggest sports corruption scandal that we've ever had.
FIFA has got the great privilege
of being in charge of the greatest game on earth,
that people just fall in love with
when they're really, really small, and love for the rest of their lives.
But they're in an important position
with a duty to safeguard the values of the sport.
It's a much happier place to be,
not to know all the ugly goings-on inside football,
and just to still love the game and support your national team,
just out of innocence and love.
But at the same time,
most football supporters have a feeling for when things aren't right.
The normal fan wants to see football, to be in the World Cup.
He wants to see his heroes playing, the Ronaldos and all… all the Messis.
He doesn't care about the infights in FIFA.
He knows FIFA's corrupt, and he's fed up with that.
The question is allowed.
Why should the normal fan care about bribery in sport?
We should care because the sport still gives the illusion to the world
that it is something nice, something fair,
something entertaining, something clean.
It is not, but the illusion still lives on.
If we don't fight corruption in sport, we should not fight corruption at all.
In order to understand how corruption takes root in football
in different places around the world,
it's really important to go back to the origins of FIFA.
FIFA was formed by seven European football associations in 1904,
and they were all amateur.
There was no money in it at all.
And there's an idealism there to play sport against each other.
They wanted football to be a force for good.
For decades, football spread phenomenally around the world,
despite how small-scale FIFA was for such a long time.
For years, it was just, you know, in an office building
in downtown Zurich,
and it… and it didn't have its own HQ.
It was an amateurish organization
until 1974.
At the time, the president of FIFA was a prominent English football administrator
called Stanley Rous,
who was then challenged by the Brazilian, João Havelange.
I'd like to mention this. For Stanley, I have the greatest respect.
When you enter into an election,
you do not turn into enemies, you are temporary adversaries.
João Havelange was the most famous Brazilian in the world.
João Havelange had been an Olympic athlete in swimming.
João Havelange was the president of the Brazilian Sports Confederation.
He had a genuine interest in sports.
He realized that the knowledge he had about sports
could be transformed into political power.
He started learning more about the political situation in FIFA.
He saw that there was a chance.
Would it be such a bad thing for football if Brazil did get this post?
I don't know. I should be a little apprehensive.
Why?
Well, in view of the way that I've seen that they, um…
their attitude towards football and sport is so different from ours.
Stanley Rous made some big mistakes
and misjudgments on the international stage.
Particularly the fact that he had a tolerant attitude
towards apartheid South Africa
and their membership of FIFA.
He's not well-loved in Africa.
People see Stanley Rous as a part of the British Empire,
who are blocking the advancement of the African countries
who are fighting for their independence.
Havelange said, "While apartheid exists,
if I am elected, South Africa will be banned by FIFA."
Havelange fought a very shrewd election,
and this is where the politics, perhaps with a capital P, comes in.
Each country's football association has one vote
in the FIFA presidential election.
So, there are votes all around the world,
especially in Africa,
and João Havelange completely understood that if you wanted to win that election,
it's not going to do you any harm
if you promise them that there's gonna be some resources there,
some money there for development of the game in their own countries.
And then there's also the suspicion, of course,
that he had money, and that the famous packages,
the brown envelopes,
may have been distributed to delegates at the hotel in Frankfurt
in the days before the congress.
Of course it happened. It's certain it happened.
Gentlemen delegates, Mr. Havelange received 68 votes…
-…Sir Stanley Rous, 52.
The new president of FIFA is Mr. Havelange.
The election of João Havelange was such a watershed for FIFA.
This Brazilian industrialist
had replaced the English referee, FA blazer figure.
So unexpected and shocking.
The arrival of Havelange to FIFA
symbolized the arrival of capitalism in FIFA,
in the sense that its identity changed
from being like a club amongst friends,
Europeans who were all very interested in the game,
and became a business.
Soon after being elected president of FIFA,
I had in mind two particularly ambitious projects.
They should benefit, most of all, the youth and Third World countries.
So, Havelange had made those promises
to do more development in Africa, particularly.
But the problem was that there wasn't much money in FIFA
to actually do these programs.
And that's when Sepp Blatter came on board.
In October of '74, FIFA contacted me and said,
"Havelange is looking for somebody who could develop the game."
And I heard, "FIFA, FIFA."
I said, "Whoo! I jump into FIFA."
I met Havelange.
A big, tall man.
It's easy to be tall in front of me.
I never had more than Messi. 170, 169.
So… so, it's easy to be tall.
And he, uh, looked at me, and he said,
"Tu veux travailler avec moi?"
Uh… "Do you want to work with me?"
And I said, uh, "Yes, Mr. President."
Handshake. And he said… "You're hired."
Then I had what I wanted in my life,
to work for football and in football.
But developing the game, I… I cannot do it myself.
I need help.
FIFA had no money.
So, what I did,
I approach Coca-Cola,
and I made a presentation.
And then there was a man there, and he said,
"I listened to what you have said,
but how many bottles of Coca-Cola are you going to sell for me?"
I said, "It's not a question to sell the Coca-Cola,
but it is a question that two big organizations,
they can go together for the benefits of the youth."
And so, in 1976, we made the press conference
to announce the big support from the Coca-Cola Company
to FIFA for the development programs
and the youth competitions.
He was the first one who introduced modern sponsoring
in development programs.
It was totally new. This was revolutionary, you know.
Coca-Cola supported the FIFA Coca-Cola Program,
as it was called.
This was the start of the modern FIFA.
And once we had Coca-Cola, then others followed.
Adidas said, "We will give the equipment."
And then we had the contract with KLM.
This is in the first four years
that Havelange is in power.
They're selling massive sponsorships for the first time.
After that, you start to see all these other brands
start attaching themselves to football, to sponsor the '78 World Cup.
It brings in an avalanche of money to FIFA.
Football became a product.
Then automatically, it's obvious.
You touch… you touch politics.
I'm sure
that Argentina will host an excellent World Cup.
Economically, it's a rich country.
It has the right conditions, financially speaking,
for us to have a perfect World Cup.
The '78 World Cup was really a remarkable moment
in the history of sport, and politics, for that matter,
because it was… it was the opportunity for FIFA
to begin to really spread its wings financially,
but also it was an opportunity for FIFA to lay down
with perhaps the most despicable kinds of politicians you can imagine.
Argentina in 1976 had a takeover
by a fascist, violent,
brutal military group.
They were responsible for atrocities and disappearances.
General Videla, this very stern-looking man,
was running Argentina at this time.
The military junta was bundling up dissidents,
putting them on airplanes and helicopters,
and throwing them into the Rio de la Plata.
They were squashing all dissent,
and it was a truly horrific moment in modern world history.
The dictatorship was disastrous for the country.
It brought us pain.
The World Cup was not suspended,
despite all the economic problems the country was having.
The words of the President were, for us, yet another reassurance.
Therefore, we leave here very satisfied and very happy.
There's a modern word for cruel or unjust regimes
who glamorize themselves
or cleanse their image through association with football,
and the modern word is sportswashing.
The laundering of an image through being associated with sport.
The most famous example is not Argentina.
It's… it's the Hitler Olympics in 1936 in Berlin.
The World Cup of Argentina is a carbon copy of 1936.
We call on the footballers,
spectators, and the press of the world to boycott the games.
There was a big campaign to boycott it, but no country did boycott it.
Argentina! Argentina!
Argentina reached the final with a wonderful team.
One of the stars was Mario Kempes, playing with his socks down his ankles
in a really flamboyant way, long hair.
He rode three tackles
before playing a reverse pass off the goalkeeper.
It was heart-stopping.
And Argentina won the World Cup.
They were the first happy moments I remember as a community.
We went from euphoria to sadness
when we found out at the end of the dictatorship
about everything that had happened in those years,
and how we were used as puppets.
I kept it there. I kept it there because it was sport, not politics.
It was well-organized,
the discipline was absolute, and it was a great World Cup.
Havelange himself said
that football and politics shouldn't mix,
that FIFA is an entity that's non-partisan and non-political.
João Havelange organized a World Cup final
at the Stadium Monumental de Núñez,
a mere 500 meters from the prison of the Argentinian Navy School,
where the objectors to the dictatorship were tortured and killed.
"Because I don't do politics."
Do you understand?
And then he does the worst, the worst kind of politics there is.
The kind that supports dictatorships.
Sportswashing is a big issue now,
and when you look back at the 1978 World Cup,
the 1936 Olympics,
and now,
I think it becomes more disturbing.
Sport allows itself to be, essentially,
bought by regimes with human rights issues,
rather than using its power to take a stance against that.
And you could say Argentina wrote the playbook
for how to do that.
In this story of the history of how corruption takes root in FIFA,
there's moments of original sin,
moments of people doing something corrupt, and it then becomes endemic,
and it seems that this, after the World Cup in Argentina,
is really one of those moments.
There are people who believe that Havelange should be recognized
for having a great legacy for football, and for FIFA, which is arguable,
but that he was corrupted by Horst Dassler,
the German owner of Adidas.
We produce 15,000 shoes, which is our main operation,
and, among other things, 500 balls per day.
Adidas had this incredible interwoven relationship with FIFA,
and Horst Dassler was remarkably powerful and influential,
going back decades by then.
It's almost like how much Adidas you saw on television when the World Cup was on
was reflected in the influence that Adidas had behind the scenes.
And the story goes that Adidas were doing the overall marketing package
for the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
And Horst Dassler put a payout into the contract for Havelange
in order to make sure that they secured the rights,
which was effectively a bribe.
And so João Havelange, the president of FIFA,
takes money for those marketing rights.
Then Dassler started to think about other ways to bribe Havelange
to be able to control rights indefinitely
'cause he knows that the value of football is just gonna explode.
As television developed,
the rights to just seeing the action became very, very, very valuable.
So Horst Dassler moves into pure sports marketing.
He wants to buy up the rights to the World Cups from FIFA
and then sell them to broadcasters.
Havelange is not interested, necessarily,
in what the correct market value for it is.
He's interested in,
and this is where things start getting ugly,
how much money Dassler can give him privately under the table
in exchange for those rights.
And so Dassler creates this company, ISL, International Sport and Leisure.
And this company begins gobbling up almost every right associated with FIFA.
At the time, the model was simple and, uh, very profitable for ISL.
It was a straight rights buyout.
So, you went and offered a certain amount of money
to, uh… to FIFA
in return for all their marketing rights.
Then we could do with it whatever we wanted
and obviously sell them for, uh, more money.
As long as it brought money for FIFA, they were happy
because they themselves didn't understand what we were doing,
but they liked the money coming in.
They definitely really used their power to their benefit.
The mastermind behind everything was Horst Dassler.
Granting ISL a de facto monopoly, the dark road started.
At the time, Blatter had the full trust of Havelange,
and Blatter behaved in a way that Havelange could trust.
He did everything for the president.
I was witnessing this, you know.
At the time, I remember there were 11 members in FIFA,
and I was number 12.
And number 12, at the time,
he didn't play.
He was substitute,
but only in the first half if somebody is injured.
He never played.
So I said, "I'm not a silly boy
to… to be the number 12 for all… all my life."
Blatter was a very ambitious marketing guy.
He learned how to try and negotiate your way up the ladder.
And a way of doing that
was to very much be the loyal worker for Havelange.
And in 1981,
he became the general secretary.
So then he's second in power, really, to Havelange.
- Hello.
And Havelange was always in Brazil.
He came every six weeks or two months to see if the building is still standing.
So, Blatter could more or less do what he wanted.
He was the best-oriented person.
He was the spider in the net.
And Havelange was happy with the situation as it was.
He could get his black money. He could be the president.
He could… He could get the glory.
The moment when people understood,
"This is a powerful guy, FIFA is something else now,"
was the World Cup in Spain, without any doubt.
There was a huge qualitative leap from the darkness of Argentina
to that sunny tournament in Spain in '82, even in the sense of the weather.
The fact that it was in Spain
where a four-decade-long dictatorship had just ended.
Franco.
So, it was a completely different situation.
It swapped the shadows for the light.
And the one who was shining was Havelange. As well, right?
There is even a famous scene
in which King Juan Carlos and Havelange arrived together.
And the feeling was that the king was, in fact, Havelange
because of the different posture that he and Juan Carlos had.
It looked like the king in there was Havelange.
João Havelange became a very, very powerful figure at FIFA.
I don't think there's a challenge to his presidency,
and gradually FIFA start making big money.
Since he became FIFA president,
Havelange has created a multimillion-dollar footballing empire.
With it has come a life of luxury.
There was also starting to be a culture
of these people behaving a bit like barons.
Last month, he jetted across the Atlantic to Zurich and back again,
just to say hello.
It becomes very famous, what a luxury life they all have.
The best cars, the best hotels.
You know, money no object, really.
And Havelange was almost like the emperor at FIFA.
Nearly all of FIFA's money was coming from ISL,
the marketing company founded by Horst Dassler,
the Adidas boss.
ISL controls all the marketing rights, the advertising in the stadium,
and every other element of commercialism,
so, to date, he's been very successful in his relationship with FIFA.
And all that time,
ISL had been paying kickbacks to Havelange, as the FIFA president,
for the purchase of marketing rights to World Cups.
The staff was starting to speak about ISL, and, uh, "Why is always ISL?"
And, uh, I got a lot of questions from the media, you know,
questions I should… should reply more or less correctly.
You know?
And, uh… more and more, we found out that something was rotten.
Yes, but we didn't speak it out.
Blatter knew ISL were paying Havelange money
'cause one-and-a-half million had actually been paid to FIFA by mistake,
and Blatter had seen it.
England, the Football Association…
For Blatter, it was a little triumph
because now he could show that Havelange was bribed.
This was the proof that Havelange was corrupted, you know?
And this was just, uh… the cherry on the cake, you know?
Beautiful cherry for Sepp Blatter.
And later on, he started to… to disclose his ambitions.
A few years later, I could feel he was getting impatient.
He didn't have the patience to wait until Havelange wanted to go.
He just wanted to become president. All the rest was not important.
Blatter knew that Havelange was corrupted,
and he made use of these secrets at the end of the day.
He made an arrangement with Havelange
that Havelange agreed to stay four more years
and to leave in an orderly way and to support him,
so Havelange could leave with a certain respect,
and Blatter could fulfill his dream to become FIFA president.
It was an evil pact.
My mission as president of FIFA will end
at the same time as the World Cup in France, 1998.
This must have been a very big personal disappointment for Havelange.
I'm sad that he will leave
because I cannot imagine that FIFA will run without him.
Twenty-one years together, this forges friendship.
And, uh, I first have now to digest this information.
He was never honest enough to support the president of FIFA,
who made him.
Blatter's story is one of betrayal.
I get tired even talking about him.
He's missed it! And Brazil win the World Cup!
Baggio stays rooted to the spot,
has hardly moved.
Italy are dejected. The delight from the Brazilians.
It all started with…
In the early '90s, the European members in the FIFA Executive Committee
were unhappy with the way
Havelange and Blatter were running the organization.
And so they nominated Lennart Johansson
as their candidate for FIFA presidency in 1998.
I mind my own business.
I presented my program already half a year ago.
People know for what I'm standing, and that's it.
He was very popular within FIFA
and, um, seems to have the support of Europe,
which is still sort of at the top of the pyramid of world football.
So, Blatter finds quite a challenge there.
How do you see Mr. Blatter's candidacy?
He's a very good general secretary.
We can also look at what lessons Havelange taught Blatter.
I think perhaps the most important lesson was about how to count votes
and that, in fact, other countries have lots of votes as well.
And once you're looking for votes, well, then it's a lethal business.
This is a big weakness in the FIFA system,
which no one's quite worked out how to solve.
Every country has one vote.
CONMEBOL, for example, the South American confederation,
which includes Brazil and Argentina,
two of the greatest football countries
who've won the World Cup multiple times between them,
has only 10 votes for the presidency of FIFA,
but CONCACAF,
because of all the Caribbean islands,
they have over 30 votes for the presidency,
so, therefore, any FIFA president has to keep them happy.
And who is the president of CONCACAF for all those years?
Someone called Jack Warner.
In the Caribbean, there's a post-Jack and a pre-Jack.
Pre-Jack, most of the Caribbean went about their business on their own,
25 countries reporting back to CONCACAF and FIFA.
When Jack came in, he united the Caribbean,
and he gave every single Caribbean nation,
whether you're as small as Turks and Caicos or as big as Cuba,
a sense of belonging.
He believed the Caribbean should be hosting World Cups.
He believed that anything that Europe gets or Africa gets or Asia gets,
the Caribbean should get as well.
And he was a person that wielded a very, very powerful hand
in football in Trinidad and Tobago.
Nothing happened without him.
What happens in FIFA now
is that you have to be able to make alliances, forge alliances,
and in that way, you tend to get what you want.
Jack Warner always had a sidekick,
this other character who hung out with him by the name of Chuck Blazer.
When I first turned on to this whole thing,
I noticed, while there was articles about Jack Warner,
no one wrote about Chuck Blazer.
If this is an alternative method to some of the…
He's not someone who played soccer.
He didn't play many sports at all. He didn't know anything about the sport.
He was much more interested in the administration.
He was a hustler, a salesman. That was his number one talent.
He coached both his kids' soccer teams in New Rochelle, and I think he saw…
He said, "There's all these kids playing soccer."
"There's a huge upsurge in interest in soccer in America."
He saw a way to make a buck. He was always looking for that.
Really, he rose from coaching his kids' soccer team
to the soccer federation, which gave him a place in CONCACAF.
And that's when he connected with Jack Warner.
The name itself is the Confederation
of North, Central American and Caribbean Association…
Now, each of those three zones have somewhat different flavors to them.
Chuck helped Jack realize
that the Caribbean was the sleeping giant of CONCACAF
in terms of one country, one vote.
And in a 40-nation confederation,
if 25 of those nations are Caribbean and they're organized,
they should lead the direction of the confederation.
So, Chuck said,
"Hey, we need to think about a structure that really works for us."
"Let's go make this money."
And so, in 1990,
Jack Warner won the election for CONCACAF president
and made Chuck the general secretary.
I think he was as corrupt as can be when he got there,
but I think he also learned the way of FIFA.
His appetite got much, much bigger.
Jack relied on Chuck to generate the television contract
and other dollars that would mean wealth
for the confederation and those two men in particular.
Chuck believed he should get a taste of everything.
Like your Mafia guys, they want a taste of every single deal,
and Blazer very much believed that.
Last year, I was given the responsibility also
to handle two new competitions which are…
When they assemble the votes in the Caribbean to win CONCACAF,
this other sort of immediate takeaway from that
is that that's a large block of votes
that can also be applied to elections at FIFA.
Anyone that wanted to be the president of FIFA,
you had to go through the Caribbean, you had to go through Jack Warner
because he held a huge voting block.
And not only just held it, they were extremely disciplined
and loyal to him.
Blatter understood quite clearly
that Jack had good negotiating skills in everything that he did.
And Jack recognized
there would be more benefits coming into the Caribbean with him.
So, they became… "brothers."
Jack Warner would have been someone to make an offer to change his mind.
He is this kind of character.
But the Europeans couldn't do that.
So, uh, he was lost from the beginning.
I regret very much the fact that for Europe, for UEFA,
it seems that no football exists beyond their frontiers,
and that everybody must conform to UEFA and not the other way around.
And this is one big family.
I have a problem with that.
He was one of those who asked for money
to vote for Lennart Johansson.
Bluntly.
He was only looking after his own pockets.
So, he was supporting Blatter, but we hoped that in spite of that,
we would come through as winners,
and, uh, we were hoping that we… we get all Europe behind us.
Two candidates, the Swiss, Joseph Blatter,
against the Swede, Lennart Johansson.
Lennart Johansson wants to apply his European strategy on the world stage.
He is the man behind the evolution of European competitions.
You have to watch your back all the time because you can't really trust people.
There are… there are very few
who are not prepared to change their opinions.
In other football news,
Michel Platini joined Sepp Blatter's campaign this morning in Paris.
He announced his support for Mr. Blatter's bid
to become the next FIFA president.
Basically, Blatter said to himself, "I'm not very popular."
"Although I'm Swiss, I'm not very popular or even not popular at all
with the European federations."
Blatter was aware that he was seen as a rather dull football politician,
and he said to himself, "Here is Michel Platini,
who retired from football,
who seems to have embarked in sports politics."
"He could be an absolutely incredible running mate."
Platini really revolutionized French football.
He revolutionized it on the pitch, but also off it.
He really had this incredible technical range,
which made him a unique player.
And so he saw Blatter and was quite impressed by his work rate.
And that's when the idea of this Platini-Blatter ticket emerged.
On the list of the best players in the world,
he was one of the highest there.
He said, "I… My value is one million."
I said, "Okay, one million." Also a handshake.
-Okay? -Okay.
Platini's role was very important in Europe
because this election was not at all a done deal for Blatter.
Blatter was not the favorite.
When we did the math a few months before the congress,
Blatter was still well behind.
In Asia, we had a split situation.
There was quite a few associations in favor of Johansson.
And we thought that the bonds between Africa and Europe were so strong
that all the African states would give their votes for Lennart.
Um…
And, uh, strange things happened.
Okay, smile.
Smile.
In April, Blatter rang me and said,
"Emmanuel, I would like to pick your brain on how to get the vote from Africa."
And I said, "Listen, you know, you are facing a tough guy."
"Like, Johansson, who already… a tight relationship with CAF,
the African football confederation."
"But there is maybe one thing we can do."
I flew to South Africa
to meet the chairman of the South African Football Association.
I come in and I say, "Oli, I need your help." I say, "Listen."
"Here is a golden opportunity for South Africa as a nation,
and for you as a president, to host the World Cup."
"If you make a right choice, we'll give you a guarantee."
And he said that, "If it's true,
I will not only bring the voice of South Africa,
but I will bring the 14 COSAFA members to you folks."
So I say, "Bingo."
I call Sepp. I say, "Listen, we have a deal here."
What counts is the money. In direct way or indirect way.
And promising a World Cup is also a way of promising money.
Another key ally of Sepp Blatter
was Mohamed Bin Hammam.
He was a Qatari businessman and essentially his campaign manager.
Clearly very ambitious,
and he absolutely hitched his wagon to Blatter for that '98 election.
He's a rich man.
Very influential, powerful.
He always get what he needs.
Bin Hammam was a very, very loyal deal-maker.
Blatter learned how important Bin Hammam can be.
Whatever he promised, he kept.
I worked with him through my relationship,
friendship with the Africans, with the Asians,
to… to get more votes, you know.
I served him like nobody served him in…
uh… in his life, you know.
Several people have been talking about brown envelopes being exchanged
at the FIFA hotel.
A lot of African countries switched camp just before the congress.
We can only assume that there was money involved.
There's a lot of talk about huge sums of money
being delivered to hotel rooms in Paris.
Yes, it was.
It was.
-What can you do? That-- -Was that a rumor, or was that true?
No, that was true. Yeah. It was true.
It was true.
-Good morning. -Good morning.
Good morning.
Morning. How are you?
Hello, Mr. Blatter.
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to Paris for the 51st FIFA Congress.
Without waiting anymore, I give the floor to Mr. Havelange.
And now the elections will begin.
We have two candidates.
The general secretary of FIFA, Mr. Sepp Blatter,
and the president of UEFA, Mr. Lennart Johansson.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Our football family needs a new leader.
When I was campaigning all around the world,
when I met delegates on all continents,
I did not want to promise jobs, contracts,
tournaments, money, or any other help.
And I did not want to promise financial support to some associations
who would receive this support rightfully.
Instead of making promises,
I referred to my program and to the key messages.
Democracy, solidarity, and transparency.
We had 12 minutes to present.
Johansson took, I think, ten or whatever.
He's speaking.
And he was so convinced that he will, uh…
he will be elected.
Voting for me means voting for a clean football and a clean FIFA.
Voting for me…
I was a little bit shorter, very short,
and I started to say, "You know me…"
Myself, I'm for continuity
of all the development work
that Mr. Havelange and his administration,
and to which I was instrumental,
has done during the last few years.
And then I said, "If I am elected,
I will bring the World Cup to Africa."
And then whatever, over.
I thank you all.
And then we started the procedure for election.
Algeria.
Argentina.
Bahamas.
Bahrain…
Ladies and gentlemen, the results for the first round of voting.
One candidate must obtain two-thirds of all the votes,
which is 128 votes.
Mr. Joseph Blatter, 111 votes.
Mr. Lennart Johansson, 80 votes.
Therefore, we must proceed with a second round of voting.
Dear friends, I am sorry, but 111-80.
The game is over, and I think you should go for lunch.
Thank you very much.
We understood immediately that this is already done.
Africa suddenly had turned around,
and also some Europeans,
uh, changed and didn't support their own president,
so, he was betrayed, he thought,
and I think that it doesn't make sense
to take a fight where you know already from the beginning
that you are going to lose.
I was astonished by the fact that, uh, people I talked to
told me they should vote for me, and obviously, a lot of them didn't.
And this is where I think, um, Blatter was an artist in organizing that.
I was the happiest person in the hall.
I was just standing up, saying, "Victory!"
"It's a liberation for us."
What he has is he has an insatiable desire
to be the center of attention.
And that could…
in the end, could have made him fail, but it didn't.
Once again, please applaud Lennart Johansson.
And had Johansson been elected president of FIFA,
these scandals that we know now would not have happened.
There was a reaction afterwards by UEFA by saying…
I remember.
"This is one victory."
"But never again will you be the president. Never again."
It all started with Blatter and Havelange.
And the '98 elections was the foundation
for all the things that happened afterwards.
The ongoing mess at FIFA continues
with Mohamed Bin Hammam accusing Sepp Blatter of behaving like a dictator.
Where is my security?
Saying that I have bribed somebody by paying something,
this is absolutely wrong.
-What do you have on Blatter? -No comments.
Why no comments?
Stop, please, to say FIFA's corrupt. FIFA is not corrupt.
I feel let down, sickened, and fed up.
Enough is enough.
How about your relationship with Jack Warner?
It's obviously been broken.
I said before, FIFA will feel a tsunami coming.
Trust me. You haven't seen it yet.