Sport

South Africa, Sport, World

Fifa fallout: It’s always the cover-up that hurts the most

Fifa fallout: It’s always the cover-up that hurts the most

Inevitably, the Fifa/African Diaspora Legacy Project triggers J. BROOKS SPECTOR’S memories of the Watergate affair. With that in mind, do the lessons of Watergate offer any guidance for those who are finding themselves increasingly ensnared in the Fifa mess?

One would have thought South Africa’s leaders would learned a great deal from history, what with all the excitement over renaming universities, removing statues and the like. However, it might have been very useful this past week or so if they had pondered the lessons of the original “-gate” scandal – Watergate – rather than just all that attention on that ‘good story to tell’.

Even without looking for clues about what part of the judicial or constitutional system to abuse, or how to subvert a country’s police and criminal investigation services; the one big message that should have been taken on board – loud and clear – from Watergate’s history was Senator Howard Baker’s judgement about the scandal while he was a member of the Senate committee investigating the conduct of President Richard Nixon. Baker had famously explained, “It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble.” And that is a key part of South Africa’s latest international problem, right about now. Of course, in this specific case, the rather awkward, rather sleazy events themselves haven’t helped all that much either.

As virtually the entire football-playing-world knows by now, South Africa (whether the government, the World Cup Local Organising Committee, or both) managed to have $10 million shipped to one Jack Warner of Concacaf, the footie federation representing the Caribbean, Latin American and North American football associations for world football conclaves and other issues. These monies apparently were creamed off the entire contribution to South Africa to run the 2010 World Cup.

The monies were putatively supposed to be part of something called the African Diaspora Legacy Project and it seems that this money was skimmed off the nearly $425 million in funds to be transferred by Fifa to South Africa for that 2010 tourney. This has all come to light as a result of bank, wire and tax fraud investigations by the US department of justice of one Chuck Blazer, Warner’s trusted deputy, or sometime bagman. The original investigation that uncovered this particular contribution to Warner began with the tax/banking/wire fraud problems of Blazer, the high-living American who was an associate of Warner’s, rather than about Fifa, initially.

Three things – at least – about this messy affair now seem to be seriously in dispute. The first – and most compelling – is whether this funds transfer was intended, as has been charged, to have been a roundabout way of insuring the final vote to have the 2010 games in South Africa went as hoped. (Concacaf apparently controlled three votes.) The second is what, exactly, has happened to all that money – where did it all go and what’s it doing now? And the third, of course, is whether any senior South African officials and other influential individuals colluded in any way in all of this as insurance to make certain the vote went the way it was supposed to go, rather than to some other ungrateful, penny-pinching nation like Morocco.

So far at least, in all of this, South Africa has repeatedly been caught on the back foot in the denials and rebuttals news cycle, repeatedly chasing after the latest revelation with yet another spluttering fulmination about the perfidiousness of certain dark foreign forces trying to besmirch this country’s reputation. And so here is where a lesson from Watergate should be abundantly clear. Back in 1972-3, in the Watergate mess, it was that slow but inexorable drip-drip-drip of increasingly lurid revelations that finally led to the unprecedented resignation of a president – just ahead of an impeachment and conviction.

In Watergate, the whole things started with the arrest of a motley crew of burglars who had broken into Democratic Party headquarters in advance of the 1972 election, on behalf of a Republican administration. Watergate was simply the name of a rather larney mixed-use office/commercial/residential building where the crime had taken place. From the original crime, things then moved on to the Washington Post’s discovery of a direct connection from the burglars to a low-level White House staffer. Then there was the uncovering of further connections higher up in the White House and some unsettling ties to misappropriated and illegally raised campaign funds. Subsequently, it became the accidental public revelation of secret tape recordings of hours and hours of conversations inside the White House, many about this very mess. Eventually there was the unexplained erasure of 18 vital minutes in those recordings, just as these various crimes were almost certainly being discussed in depth with the president, just after the president had insisted all of the records about these crimes were already out in the open.

And now we head back to today’s South Africa. Over the past few days, a slow stream of increasingly incriminating letters and emails have come to light about mysterious $10 million African Diaspora Legacy Project fund payments – and the fact that it was a project that never really was. These revelations have apparently been linked the authorisation of these payments to several high flying South African individuals, in tandem with the disclosures of where the money transferred from Fifa ultimately ended up and who got hold of it – along with threats by the apparent actual recipient that there was much more to come.

So, rather than the defiant bluster that has emanated from South Africa, something that almost inevitably means they will eventually have to respond to yet future disclosures, bobbing and weaving around the story, what if South African officials had carefully studied the lesson of Watergate instead? What if the government had sorted out its position and issued a very different kind of response, right from the get-go? And so, in spirit of public service, the Daily Maverick offers the media release that should have been issued instead of what has come out so far.

DRAFT MEDIA RELEASE

The South African Government is deeply shocked and saddened to have learned certain foreign individuals involved in the management of international football competitions may have illegally obtained funds intended to nurture the development of football in the countries of the African diaspora, as part of the overall efforts of South Africa’s hosting of the Soccer World Cup 2010. This planned project represented a serious commitment by the South African government to engage in building closer and more productive ties with the various nations of the African Diaspora – and most especially those nations of the Caribbean basin. This commitment has been a regular, continuing element in South Africa’s international relations efforts for many years, all as part of its determined efforts to enhance relations with many likeminded nations around the world. Such an effort at improving these relations continues as a key part of this country’s international affairs agenda.

Similarly, the South African government vigorously endorses and supports efforts by legitimate international criminal investigation agencies – acting in co-operation with the administration of Fifa and in strict accordance with international law and practice – in order to identify how such funding ultimately may have ended up in the personal accounts of one or more individuals, rather than being spent for their intended, publicly declared purpose.

The South African government reiterates its support for efforts now on-going to end any and all corruption in the management and administration of international sporting codes, including, but not limited to, football. In support of this policy, consistent with international agreements and this country’s international responsibilities under such treaties, the South African government wishes to underscore its intention to make any appropriate records related to the possibility of maladministration in international sport funding available to duly constituted authorities, under this country’s responsibilities to those aforementioned international agreements.

Further, to the extent it is appropriate under those treaties, the government will similarly make available relevant officials for briefings to those international law enforcement agencies or their representatives. Naturally, to the extent such information relates to any on-going criminal investigations, consistent with usual norms, the contents will remain sub judice until the appropriate time and place for them to be made public in whole or in part.

To the extent such international criminal investigations may ultimately make it clear certain South African individuals participated in activities beyond those legally permitted or contemplated as part of the goals and philosophy of the African Diaspora Legacy Project, the South African government notes the country’s relevant legal processes to respond to such charges will take their course without fear or favour. Naturally, these will be carried out in a manner consistent with the country’s international legal obligations.

The South African government also takes this opportunity to inform the international community it intends to call into being a panel of distinguished jurists to carry out this nation’s own internal investigation of governmental procedures and processes, as well as to identify any potential or actual lapses in the management of its commitments to assist the African Diaspora Legacy Project. The specific terms of reference for this commission, as well as the specific individuals appointed to this commission, will be the subject of a separate communication from government shortly.

Finally, the South African government wishes to express its deep unhappiness that none of the intended and contemplated outcomes of the African Diaspora Legacy Project have apparently come to fruition, apparently as a result of actions carried out by one or more individuals, acting beyond the law, but outside of South Africa. The South African government takes this opportunity to state in the strongest possible terms that, to the fullest extent possible, its claim that all such funds illegally obtained and misappropriated by such individuals should be recovered in a timeous fashion and in accord with appropriate legal processes. Moreover, a full, complete plan of action for the (delayed) development of this Project will be created to make use of these funds for their original intended purpose at the earliest possible moment.

Ends

Of course this particular horse, or perhaps the whole herd of them by now, may well have already bolted from the barn, as more and more unsettling, even incriminating, documents and statements come to light. In that sense, setting out and guiding this Fifa narrative may already be well beyond South Africa’s hands, especially when there are all those near-obligatory fulminations about imperialism coming from some mouths.

But, if things continue to spiral out of control, it may well be time for the country’s top leadership (hint, hint) to figure out who gets to walk that proverbial plank on behalf of the greater good, and to help restore the country’s somewhat tattered reputation in this affair. Sadly, given all the names being bandied about already, the list of such potential ‘victims’ who can be offered up to satisfy the global hunger for the country’s international credibility and reputation is uncomfortably large. But, given the way the world works, defence lawyers are almost certainly already on speed-dial to take up that particular challenge – both in South Africa and beyond. That is how legal reputations are made. DM

Photo: FIFA President Joseph Blatter (L) hands Jabulani, the official ball for the FIFA 2010 World Cup South Africa, to Danny Jordaan (R), managing director of the organization committee, in Cape Town, South Africa, 04 December 2009. Jabulani is produced by German company adidas. EPA/BERND WEISSBROD

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