FIFA boss called to account over collapse of Swiss marketing agent
The future of Sepp Blatter, the Swiss president of football's world governing body, is in doubt following the collapse of FIFA's marketing agent, ISMM-ISL.
The organisation responsible for European football, UEFA, has demanded that Blatter explain his relationship with the Swiss sports marketing firm, which was declared bankrupt earlier this week.
It indicated that Blatter could be forced to resign if he did not provide the necessary information.
ISMM-ISL was the world number one sports marketing firm, and until recently held the marketing rights for the 2002 and 2006 football world cups. But a series of bad investments forced the company to seek bankruptcy after it registered losses of more than SFr600 million ($343 million) last year.
At a UEFA meeting on Thursday, the organisation expressed “grave concern at the lack of transparency and clarity” surrounding the relationship between FIFA and ISMM.
UEFA president, Lennart Johansson, said it was imperative that Blatter fully explain all the issues relating to the bankruptcy.
“Joseph Blatter has to explain himself,” Johansson said. “Everything has to be laid on the table.”
Johansson also called an extraordinary meeting of the FIFA executive committee to discuss the issue.
He said Blatter would either have to resign or face a no-confidence vote if he did not meet UEFA’s demands. “Those are the two alternatives,” Johansson said.
ISMM-ISL was FIFA’s marketing partner for more than 20 years. It had run up debts estimated at around SFr1 billion when it went bankrupt.
UEFA is concerned that the bankruptcy will mean it will not receive money owed to it by the marketing firm.
“As a result of the ISMM-ISL collapse, we have not received SFr22.5 million owed to us as part of a profit-sharing deal after last year’s European Championships,” UEFA chief executive, Gerhard Aigner, said.
FIFA has cancelled this year’s World Club Championship, which was due to be held in July, so that it can direct resources to its new marketing subsidiary, which has taken over responsibility from ISMM-ISL for selling the rights to the next two football world cups.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.