num_pages: 233
description: Omert! Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family By Andrew Jennings In Omert I show that the leadership of FIFA under Brazils Joo Havelange and now Sepp Blatter tick all the boxes defining an Organised Crime Syndicate says Andrew Jennings. My investigations took me from confronting the Mafia in Palermo to FIFAs glass and marble palace in Zurich then to the gang wars in Rio following the trail of briefcases stuffed with gold bars. I had wonderful help and encouragement in Brazil from activists reporters fans academics police prosecutors a brave woman judge honest politicians  and one of Brazils greatest ever footballers. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be played against a backdrop of the rage of more than half of Brazils football-loving population. If demonstrators are killed by the out-of-control riot police the responsibility rests with Sepp Blatter who years ago endorsed the corruption now engulfing the tournament. In the 1990s I investigated the International Olympic Committee police corruption and Organised Crime. During breaks I reported from wars in Beirut Chechnya and Central America. Then it was time to investigate Sepp Blatters FIFA grown fat from bountiful World Cup TV and marketing revenues and not scrutinised by the sports media. At the beginning I thought there would be only a few crooks to expose at FIFA. Then terrific sources from inside the organisation made contact giving me boxes of FIFAs confidential internal financial records. I realised that the magnitude of the corruption  and the cover-ups  was breath-taking. It was not a few crooks. As an institution FIFA was mobbed up! With other reporters I have exposed the organised corruption at the top of FIFA. The scandals of recent years have been marked by the silence of FIFAs leadership. Like a true gangland boss Blatter refuses to condemn any of his colleagues forced out for wrongdoing. The global brands that fund FIFA are equally silent. Omert is their rule. Some of the heaviest punishments inflicted on football officials by Blatter during the last four years of scandals have not been for corruption. They have been for talking to undercover reporters  for breaking the vow of Omert. Some of Blatters Executive Committee are proved to be outright crooks. Others enjoying fabulous salaries fees and bonuses access to World Cup tickets and unaudited development grants look the other way mouths and eyes glued closed upholding Omert. Footballs money is the grease lubricating the FIFA machine and keeping Sepp Blatter in power. Omert reveals that Blatters reform process is bogus. He has changed FIFAs rules to protect himself rigged the evidence against him and hired expensive investigators to exonerate him It has cost FIFA millions of dollars to make him the sports worlds Great Untouchable. * * * * * * Andrew Jennings presents investigation films for BBC-TV has written five books on corruption and thousands of articles for newspapers magazines and academic journals. Foul!  his first investigation of FIFA corruption has been published in 16 languages since 2006. Blatter went to court in Switzerland to have it banned  and failed! Andrew has won numerous awards for his journalism and lectures world-wide on corruption and investigation techniques.
language: English
title: Omertà: Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family
publisher: Transparency Books