BBC News, 29 November 2010
Three senior Fifa officials who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids took bribes in the 1990s, according to the BBC's Panorama.
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| Fifa executives Ricardo Teixeira (l), Issa Hayatou and Nicolas Leoz (r) |
Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira took the money from a sport marketing firm awarded lucrative World Cup rights, the programme alleges.
The alleged bribes are included in a confidential document listing 175 payments totalling about $100m (£64m).
The three men did not respond to Panorama's allegations.
Fifa, world football's governing body, also declined interview requests to address the allegations.
Timing criticised
Panorama, to be broadcast later, also reports on evidence of a fourth senior Fifa executive's continued involvement in the resale of World Cup tickets to touts.
The BBC has received criticism over the timing of the programme, which comes ahead of Thursday's vote by Fifa's executive committee on who will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals.
England is competing with Russia, Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium to host the 2018 tournament.
The BBC has defended the timing of Panorama, saying the programme is in the public interest.
The alleged bribes to the three members of Fifa's executive committee were paid by sports marketing company International Sport and Leisure (ISL) and date from 1989 to 1999, Panorama reports. The company collapsed in 2001.
Fifa granted ISL exclusive rights to market World Cup tournaments to some of the world's biggest brands and ISL received millions more from negotiating television broadcast rights.
A former account manager at ISL, Roland Buechel, said staff had long suspected bribes were being paid for the lucrative Fifa contracts.
"It is huge money, billions, that can be earned and all the sports marketing companies they fight, they want it," Mr Buechel said.
Some details of the alleged bribes emerged in 2008, when six ISL managers were accused of misusing company money.
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