ZURICH: A report on the lavish financial management of FIFA under disgraced former president Sepp Blatter and secretary-general Jerome Valcke has alleged a wilful wastage of the world football’s federation’s cash writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The 98-page report entitled Progress at FIFA – Status Report was compiled by the Swiss auditing consultant BDO and found its way into the hands of the French news agency AFP.

Blatter’s successor, Gianni Infantino, commissioned the report into FIFA finances in 2015 and 2016 after his election as FIFA president in 2016.

One of the main points of the report is the lack of a “permit process for the use of private jets”.

In 2014 alone, FIFA spent $7.9m on private jets, and averaged $4.9m per year between 2010 and 2014. In particular, these expenses are linked to Valcke, who was fired by FIFA in early 2016 after suspension.

Compared with this period, in the first year of Infantino’s presidency, private jet expenditure on private jets dropped by 88pc.

In addition, Blatter and Valcke had sole control until 2014 of an account from which FIFA donated money for charitable purposes. Between 2006 and 2014, a “senior FIFA official” – believed to be Blatter – handed over $2.5m to numerous institutions, charities, and his home town.

This home town would have been Visp.

The report notes the lack of “clear rules on the reimbursement of expenses”, adding: “Two former members of the executive committee demanded reimbursement of $780,000 and $390,000, respectively, in just one year.”

Another “high-ranking FIFA official” was reimbursed $300,000 although the paperwork was issued in the name of his national federation. This is understood to have been former Thailand FA supremo Worawi Makudi, a long-time member of the exco who was later suspended for five years.

Chuck Blazer, who was ‘turned’ by the FBI to become their main whistleblower in the FIFAGate corruption case, was another bemeficiary of sharp practice.

Having attended two FIFA events in the same place a few days apart, he was reimbursed for two return flights while he had only made one.

In addition, the report highlighted the sale of match tickets through the black market as well as possible irregularities in use of funding from FIFA’s worldwide development programmes.

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