Football governing body FIFA is investigating whether any ethics rules were broken when members of its executive committee received commemorative watches from sponsors of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) at the World Cup.

“The CBF distributed commemorative watches at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil from their own sponsor (as part of the association’s centennial celebrations) to various people, including the members of the FIFA executive committee,” football’s governing body said in a statement.

“The ethics committee was informed about this accordingly in June 2014 and is dealing with the matter.”

FIFA said the chairmen of its ethics committee, Michael Garcia, and audit and compliance committee, Domenico Scala, had previously barred the executive committee members, as well as president Sepp Blatter, from receiving watches provided by Hublot, its own official timekeeper.

“The two chairmen determined in June 2014 that this would not be permitted under the organisation’s compliance rules and as such it was decided not to distribute any of the watches to any members,” said FIFA.

“The fact is that FIFA has not distributed any watches to any of the members of its executive committee nor its president neither to its secretary general.”

Watson suspended

Meanwhile, one of the eight members of FIFA’s financial watchdog has been relieved of his role temporarily pending the outcome of a police investigation.

Canover Watson, a vice-president of the Caribbean Football Union and member of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, was arrested by police in the Cayman Islands on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.

He has been bailed until September 29 but Scala, the committee’s chairman, has announced Watson has been relieved of his duties until the outcome of the investigation.