ZURICH Former Fifa president Joao Havelange was paid huge sums in bribes by collapsed marketing company ISL, court documents have revealed.
Havelange received at least 1,5m Swiss francs (986 000) and executive committee member Ricardo Teixeira at least 12,74m SFr (8,4m). The Swiss prosecutors report, published by Fifa, reveals the pair may have received up to 21,9m SFr (14,4m).
They are the only two Fifa officials named in the report.
The idea that he (Blatter) may have been aware of what was going on is deeply troubling. If he knew that the bribery was occurring and everyone right now is reading the document to try and understand who knew what and when, if he was aware of the bribery then hes part of the problem, said David Larkin, co-director of ChangeFifa.
Switzerlands supreme court ordered the release of the documents identifying which senior officials took millions of dollars in payments from ISL, Fifas marketing partner until it collapsed into bankruptcy in 2001.
The papers were released to five media organisations, one of which is the BBC, and detail the court settlement which closed a criminal probe of the ISL case in May 2010.
In November that year, the BBCs Panorama programme alleged that three senior Fifa officials, including Teixeira, took bribes from Swiss-based ISL in the 1990s, though commercial bribery was not a crime in Switzerland at the time.
A statement issued by the BBC said: A year-long legal battle by BBC Panorama to force publication of documents related to a confidential police investigation into bribery and corruption at Fifa was vindicated today.
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In Panorama Fifas Dirty Secrets in November 2010, reporter Andrew Jennings named the two officials as recipients of bribes from the Swiss ISL sports marketing company, which was repeatedly given lucrative World Cup marketing rights by Fifa.
The documents concerning Havelange also revealed that officials repaid 5,5m Swiss francs (3,6m) to end the prosecution offices investigation on condition their identities remained secret.
