International Sport and Leisure

Last updated
International Sport and Leisure
Industry Sports marketing
Founded1982;40 years ago (1982) in Lucerne, Switzerland
Founder Horst Dassler
Defunct2001 (2001)
FateCollapsed

International Sport and Leisure (ISL) was a Swiss sports marketing company that was closely bound to FIFA. [1]

Contents

History

ISL was established by former Adidas boss Horst Dassler, and was associated with FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations. [2] It collapsed in 2001 with debts of £153 million. [2]

In 2008, following a four-year investigation by prosecutors in the Swiss canton of Zug, six former ISL executives, including the former chairman Jean Marie Weber, were accused of a series of charges including fraud, embezzlement and the falsification of documents. [2]

Court documents released in 2012 show that two FIFA executives, former president João Havelange and Ricardo Teixeira, received 41m CHF (£27m) worth of bribes from ISL between 1992 and 2000. Only 3m CHF of these were repaid. [3]

In July 2012, the reformed FIFA Ethics Committee began investigating the illegal payments made by ISL, in addition to evaluating the behaviour of FIFA president Sepp Blatter in the affair. [4] [5] ISL had specialized in buying and selling broadcast rights to FIFA events such as World Cups on contracts worth millions of dollars. [6] The case was closed on 30 April 2014 after an investigation by Garcia, with Hans-Joachim Eckert ruling that bribes had been paid by ISL between 1992 and 2000 to Havelange, Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz, then-president of CONMEBOL. As Havelange (honorary president of FIFA) and Leoz had already resigned from their posts earlier in April 2014, no "superfluous" further action was taken. [6] [7] In contrast, Blatter was exonerated of "criminal or ethical misconduct", but was also described as "clumsy" and it was questioned whether he "knew or should have known over the years before the bankruptcy of ISL that ISL had made bribes to other FIFA officials". [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FIFA</span> International governing body of association football

FIFA is an international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, its membership now comprises 211 national associations. These national associations must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sepp Blatter</span> Swiss football administrator

Joseph "Sepp" Blatter is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of the FIFA corruption case made public that year, and will remain banned until 2027.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">João Havelange</span> Brazilian businessman, athlete and football administrator

Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, athlete and centenarian who served as the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in FIFA's history, behind only that of Jules Rimet. He received the title of Honorary President when leaving office, but resigned in April 2013. He succeeded Stanley Rous and was succeeded by Sepp Blatter. João Havelange served as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1963 to 2011. He was the longest-serving active member upon his resignation. In July 2012, a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during his tenure on FIFA's Executive Committee, he and his son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira took more than 41 million Swiss francs (£21m) in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horst Dassler</span> German businessman (1936–1987)

Horst Dassler was a businessman who was the son of Adolf "Adi" Dassler, founder of Adidas. Horst Dassler founded Arena, a swimwear company, and became chairman of Adidas, and at the time of his death it was the world's largest sporting goods manufacturer with affiliates in 40 nations. Horst himself was known as the father of sports sponsorship as a result of his separate business of managing rights for the world governing bodies of football and the Olympics.

The bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups was the process by which the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) selected locations for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. The process began officially in March 2009; eleven bids from thirteen countries were received, including one which was withdrawn and one that was rejected before FIFA's executive committee voted in November 2010. Two of the remaining nine bids applied only to the 2022 World Cup, while the rest were initially applications for both. Over the course of the bidding, all non-European bids for the 2018 event were withdrawn, resulting in the exclusion of all European bids from consideration for the 2022 edition. By the time of the decision, bids for the 2018 World Cup included England, Russia, a joint bid from Belgium and Netherlands, and a joint bid from Portugal and Spain. Bids for the 2022 World Cup came from Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, and the United States. Indonesia's bid was disqualified due to lack of governmental support, and Mexico withdrew its bid for financial reasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Jennings</span> British investigative reporter (1943–2022)

Andrew Jennings was a British investigative reporter. He was best known for his work investigating and writing about corruption in the IOC and FIFA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Issa Hayatou</span>

Issa Hayatou is a Cameroonian sports executive, former athlete and football administrator best known for serving as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) between 1988 and 2017. He served as the acting FIFA president until 26 February 2016 as previous president Sepp Blatter was banned from all football-related activities in 2015 as a part of the that year's FIFA corruption investigation. In 2002, he ran for president of FIFA but was defeated by Blatter. He is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 FIFA World Cup bids</span>

This article concerns the process for determining the host nation of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which concluded on 30 October 2007 with the confirmation of Brazil as the hosts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ricardo Teixeira</span>

Ricardo Terra Teixeira is the former president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). He was in the office from January 16, 1989 to March 12, 2012. In July 2012 a Swiss prosecutor's report revealed that, during his tenure on FIFA's Executive Committee, he and his former father-in-law Joao Havelange took more than $41 million in bribes in connection with the award of World Cup marketing rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FIFA Council</span>

The FIFA Council is an institution of FIFA. It is the main decision-making body of the organization in the intervals of FIFA Congress. Its members are elected by the FIFA Congress. The council is a non-executive, supervisory and strategic body that sets the vision for FIFA and global football.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jérôme Valcke</span>

Jérôme Valcke is a French football administrator, best known as the former Secretary General of FIFA. He was fired on 13 January 2016 as a result of allegations arising from the ongoing 2015 FIFA corruption case.

"FIFA's Dirty Secrets" is an episode of the BBC documentary series Panorama which was broadcast on 29 November 2010.

The 61st FIFA Congress was held between 31 May and 1 June 2011 at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland. FIFA is the governing body of world association football, and the congress is the annual meeting of FIFA's supreme legislative body. This is the eighth congress to be held in Zurich, and the first since 2007. After an opening ceremony and a reminder of FIFA events and activities in 2010, the second day witnessed decisions taken, and the unveiling of the 2010 financial results. The opening ceremony was presented by Melanie Winiger, and featured singer Grace Jones, hammered dulcimer player Nicolas Senn, and juggler Alan Šulc.

The Dr. João Havelange Centre of Excellence is a football academy and development suite in Macoya in Trinidad and Tobago. It is named after João Havelange, the former President of FIFA and the Brazilian Football Confederation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garcia Report</span> Investigation produced by Michael J. Garcia

The Garcia Report was an investigation produced by Michael J. Garcia into allegations of corruption in world football. Garcia was appointed in July 2012 to investigate ethical breaches at the FIFA, football's world governing body. A month later he announced an investigation into persistent public accusations of bribery and corruption in the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids, which had been won in 2010 by Russia and Qatar respectively.

<i>United Passions</i> 2014 French film

United Passions is a 2014 English-language French drama film. It is about the origins of the world governing body of association football, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Ninety-percent funded by FIFA, it stars Tim Roth, Gérard Depardieu and Sam Neill, and is directed by Frédéric Auburtin. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 FIFA corruption case</span> Cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with FIFA

In 2015, U.S. federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer.

The 51st FIFA Congress was held between 6 and 8 June 1998, at the Equinox congress hall in Paris, France, just before the start of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It was the last biannual meeting of the international governing body of association football FIFA, since 1998 the congress has been held on an annual basis. The congress saw the election of Joseph "Sepp" Blatter as the 8th President of FIFA who succeeded João Havelange. Havelange had held the presidency since 1974.

Markus Kattner is a German-Swiss business consultant and former association football executive. He served as acting Secretary-General of FIFA from September 2015 to May 2016, but was sacked after being accused of paying himself bonuses worth millions of US Dollars during a previous stint as FIFA's director of Finance. Markus Kattner has begun legal proceedings against FIFA before the competent court in Zurich as he believes his dismissal to be unjustified.

El Presidente is a Chilean drama streaming television series created by Armando Bó. It is based on the 2015 FIFA corruption case and is focused in the former president of ANFP Sergio Jadue, played by Colombian actor Andrés Parra. The first 8-episode season was released on June 5, 2020, on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video. An English dub of the series was released on November 6, 2020.

References

Sources

Citations