FIFA, mired in the worst graft scandal in its history, is giving 48 Swiss watches worth up to $25,000 each to a children’s football charity after a year cajoling officials who received them from Brazilian football authorities to give them up.
The watches were left on the hotel beds of football officials including members of FIFA’s Executive Committee and representatives of national football associations attending a FIFA Congress in Brazil before the 2014 World Cup.
FIFA was pitched into crisis in May when police raided a Zurich hotel on the eve of a congress arresting several officials.
FIFA’s Ethics Committee, which last year determined the gifts handed out by the Brazilian Football Association violated its ethics rules, said yesterday it had donated the Parmigiani-brand watches to Germany’s streetfootballworld, to be sold to benefit the group’s youth programmes in Brazil.
Getting the watches back was a struggle, a FIFA spokesman said.
“We did the utmost to receive every single watch. It was hard work,” the spokesman said.
Initial reports indicated 65 watches were handed out. Eventually, the Brazilian FA said only 57 people confirmed receipt.
Six people said they had lost the timepieces, the FIFA spokesman said, adding three did not arrive for various reasons, cutting the total of returns to 48.
FIFA said it saw no legal grounds to pursue those who said they never received the watches.
The Ethics Committee’s investigatory chamber said it now considered the matter closed, while broader corruption allegations continue to plague the organisation.
FIFA has since suspended its president, Sepp Blatter, and European boss Michel Platini, over a 2 million Swiss franc payment.
$25,000 price tag
Parmigiani watches are made in Switzerland’s luxury watchmaking region of Geneva, with independent appraisals putting a market value of just over $25,000 for each timepiece handed out by the Brazilians.
Streetfootballworld director Vla-dimir Borkovic said he was told they were valued at $19,000 to $25,000, depending on the model.
“They’re in a safe place,” Borkovic said, adding he hopes to dispose of them at auction or at dinner events over the next few months.
“We have a responsibility to put this kind of wealth where we and FIFA feel it belongs.”
At $25,000 each, the proceeds would total $1.2 million.