• Urteil des BGH zu Hoyzer & Co. vom 15. Dezember 2006 (Dank an gua)

Aber Medien funktionieren so wie sie funktionieren, also auch hysterisch. Wenn das Fußballbusiness betroffen ist, das einzig wahre und reine, wenn der Dämon des Bösen mal wieder die unschuldige Branche der Fairplaybewahrer überfällt, dann ist das automatisch ein Skandal. Selbst wenn es das Tagesgeschäft ist.

Nachtrag, 20.54 Uhr, weil der Beginn doch etwas sehr launisch geriet: Die Zusammenarbeit verschiedener Polizeibehörden und der UEFA über etliche Monate hat schon eine beeindruckende neue Qualität. Ähnliche Aktionen – auch in dieser, nun ja: Schnelligkeit – wünschte ich mir mal im Dopinggeschäft und in Fällen anderer grenzübergreifender Korruption im Sport. Da wäre sicherlich viel zu holen. Kaum auszudenken.

So lange gerade die Fußball-Unternehmen (Verbände, Klubs etc.) dermaßen offensiv und gierig mit Wettanbietern kooperieren (ob staatlich oder privat ist mir völlig egal) und Sponsorenverträge akquirieren, kann ich einen Teil des Geschreis, das immer wieder ausbricht, nicht ernst nehmen. Anders gesagt: So lange FIFA, UEFA, IOC, DFB, EPFL (European Professional Football Leagues) u. a. das Wettgeschäft mächtig ankurbeln, gleichzeitig natürlich von Integrität schwurbeln, ziehen sie auch das organisierte Verbrechen und die Ganoven an, keine Frage.

Nehmen wir nur das Beispiel der ESSA (European Sports Security Association), die eine Welt-Anti-Korruptions-Agentur (WACA) des Sports fordert, was sich ganz nett anhört, gleichzeitig aber, denn es geht ja um das Wettgeschäft, Kongresse wie diesen (“Betting on South Africa 2010“) mitveranstaltet.

Jede Enthüllung, jede Form der Transparenz begrüße ich selbstverständlich – wie eine neuerlich aufflammende Diskussion über den Straftatbestand Sportbetrug (den Sportfunktionäre und ihre Lobbyisten ablehnen), den ich aus zahlreichen und oft genannten Gründen ebenfalls befürworte. 

Etliche Links zum aktuellen Skandal, zu dem die Staatsanwaltschaft Bochum heute auf einer Pressekonferenz informierte, gibt es in den Kommentaren zum Beitrag “How to fix a soccer game“. Bei Google news finden sich bereits rund 1000 Meldungen zum Stichwort “Wettbetrug“.

Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft Bochum teilen mit:

Handout zur gemeinsamen Pressekonferenz der Staatsanwaltschaft Bochum und der Polizei Bochum – Internationale Festnahme- und Durchsuchungsaktion wegen gewerbs- und bandenmäßigen Betruges

Seit  etwa einem Jahr wird unter Leitung der Schwerpunktstaatsanwaltschaft für Wirtschaftskriminalität durch das KK 21 – Dienststelle zur Bekämpfung der Organisierten Kriminalität – des Polizeipräsidiums Bochum gegen eine international agierende Bande wegen des Verdachts der fortgesetzten gewerbsmäßigen Begehung von Betrugsstraftaten ermittelt.

Der Tätergruppierung wird zur Last gelegt, sich zumindest seit Beginn des Jahres 2009 zusammengeschlossen zu haben, um auf Sportler, Trainer, Schiedsrichter und Offizielle aus hochrangigen europäischen Fußballligen  gegen unterschiedlich hohe Entgelte dahingehend  einzuwirken, Ausgänge von Fußballspielen im Interesse der Täter zu beeinflussen.

Für den Fall der Bereitschaft zu Spielmanipulationen setzten die Führungspersonen auf verschiedenen Wegen hohe Bargeldbeträge auf entsprechende Spielausgänge bei europäischen und asiatischen Wettanbietern. In Unkenntnis der vorher verabredeten Manipulationen zahlten die jeweiligen Wettveranstalter neben dem Einsatz auch die betrügerisch erlangten Gewinnsummen an die Mitglieder der Bande aus.

Auf diese Weise erlangte die Täterorganisation Wettgewinne in Höhe von mehreren Millionen Euro.

Im Zuge der bisherigen Ermittlungen wurden ca. 200 Fußballspiele im In- und Ausland festgestellt, bei denen konkret der Verdacht besteht, dass es zu versuchten oder vollendeten Manipulations- bzw. Betrugshandlungen gekommen ist.

Die Spiele teilen sich auf die betroffenen Länder u. a. wie folgt auf:

• Deutschland: 4 Spiele der 2. BL, 3 Spiele der 3. BL, 18 Spiele der Regionalligen, 5 Spiele  der Oberligen, 2 Spiele U 19
• Belgien: 17 Spiele der 2. Liga
• Schweiz: 22 Spiele der 2. Liga und 6 Vorbereitungsspiele
• Kroatien: 14 Spiele der 1. Liga
• Slowenien: 7 Spiele der 1. Liga
• Türkei: 29 Spiele von der 1. Liga abwärts
• Ungarn: 13 Spiele 1. Liga
• Bosnien: 8 Spiele 1. Liga
• Österreich: 11 Spiele 1. und 2. Liga

Hinzu kommen mindestens:

• 12 Spiele der Europa League
• 3 Spiele der Champions League
• Darüber hinaus besteht der Verdacht, dass  bei einem Länderspiel zur Qualifikation der U 21- Europameisterschaft manipulativ eingegriffen werden sollte.

Aufgrund der  bisherigen Ermittlungs- und Durchsuchungsergebnisse ist anzunehmen, dass  sich die Anzahl der tatsächlich durch die Täter beeinflussten Spiele weiter erhöhen wird. Das gleiche gilt für die Anzahl der bisher über 200 involvierten Tatverdächtigen.

Aus ermittlungstaktischen Gründen werden zur Identität der beteiligten Personen sowie der betroffenen Mannschaften derzeit keine weiteren Auskünfte erteilt.

Am 19.11.2009 wurden auf Antrag der Staatsanwaltschaft Bochum 15 Haftbefehle im Inland vollstreckt und mehr als 50  Durchsuchungsbeschlüsse in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Baden -Württemberg, Bayern, Berlin, Niedersachsen, Schleswig Holstein, der Schweiz, Österreich und Großbritannien vollzogen. Zudem erfolgten zwei weitere Festnahmen in der Schweiz durch die dortigen Behörden.

In Deutschland lagen die Schwerpunkte der Festnahmen in Berlin, Nürnberg und dem Ruhrgebiet.

Bei den durchgeführten Maßnahmen wurde umfangreiches Beweismaterial sichergestellt, das einer detaillierten Auswertung bedarf, die noch geraume Zeit in Anspruch nehmen wird. Daneben wurden Bargeld und Vermögenswerte in Höhe von mehr als einer Million Euro gesichert.

Die noch andauernden sport- und wettspezifisch äußerst komplizierten Ermittlungen wurden und werden durch die Disziplinarabteilung der UEFA in Nyon ständig unterstützt und begleitet.

Das sagen die anderen:

• Die UEFA: “UEFA statement on match-fixing case“
• Der DFB: “DFB und Ligaverband unterstützen lückenlose Aufklärung“

Btw: Es geht beim Problem des Wettbetrugs natürlich nicht nur um Fußball. Wer mag, lausche den Ausführungen des ehemaligen Mafiosi Michael Franzese während der Konferenz Play the Game im Juni in Coventry:

Politiker-Schelte durch DFB und Liga

Zwanziger fühlt sich abgebürstet, Liga-Chef Rauball beklagt Knüppel

von Rainer Kalb

Neuss (SID) Der Schulterschluss zwischen dem Deutschen Fußball-Bund (DFB) und der Deutschen Fußball Liga (DFL) hinsichtlich des neuen Grundlagenvertrages (2009 bis 2012) ist nach dem eindeutigen Votum des Außerordentlichen DFB-Bundestages unübersehbar.

Unüberhörbar war auf dem Forum am vergangenen Freitag in Düsseldorf aber auch die Wut der führenden Fußball-Repräsentanten, DFB-Chef Theo Zwanziger und Ligapräsident Reinhard Rauball. Selten haben die beiden höchsten Repräsentanten des deutschen Fußballs, beide ausgebildete Juristen und geschulte Diplomaten, solchen Klartext geredet wie im Congress Center.

Die Profis, die immerhin rund 35.000 Menschen Arbeit geben, vom Profi über den Trainer bis zum Zeugwart, Busfahrer und Bratwurstverkäufer im Stadion, diese Profis zahlen Jahr für Jahr 665 Millionen Euro Steuer (Saison 2007/08). (JW: Ich habe diese behaupteten Zahlen oft gehört. Doch vielmehr interessiert mich eine saubere Steuerauflistung des gesamten Fußballs inklusive des Profifußballs, die diese 665 Millionen bestätigt, also ich meine: so eine richtig transparante Rechnung, mit Umsatzsteuer, Steuervergünstigungen, offenen und verdeckten Subventionen/Polizei- und Sicherheitskosten etc. pp. u. v. a. m.)

Die sogenannten Amateure, die ja auch auf ihre Art Profis sind, kutschieren Kinder zum Training und zu Spielen, organisieren Meisterschaften, lehren soziales Verhalten, stellen Schiedsrichter. Meist ehrenamtlich.

Kanzlerin Angela Merkel ist bei wichtigen Länderspielen dabei und sonnt sich im Erfolg der deutschen Nationalmannschaft, Vater Staat wirft dem Fußball Knüppel zwischen die Beine. Knüppel, die fast Baumstämme sind – so empfinden es zumindest die Fußball-Funktionäre.

Rauball benannte schonungslos, was ihn am meisten nervt. Da war die mangelnde Unterstützung der Politik im Kampf gegen das Bundeskartellamt, das klare Vorgaben für die Verhandlungen über die Bundesliga-TV-Rechte ab der kommenden Saison machte und die Verhandlungsposition der DFL deutlich einengte. Verlust: mindestens 20 Millionen Euro!

Da ist der Witz mit dem Verbot für Werbung für Internet-Sportwetten. Rauball: „Wir müssen unseren Vereinen mitteilen, sie sollen bestehende Verträge kündigen, damit sie sich nicht strafbar machen. Dann kommen der AC Milan und Real Madrid nach Deutschland und werben auf ihren Trikots für bwin.” Von deutschen Behörden verhängte Bußgeldbescheide werden in Italien und Spanien belächelt und ignoriert.

Da ist der Kampf ums Werbeverbot für alkoholische Getränke. Rauball skeptisch: „Wir haben wir einen Kompromiss gefunden, aber wer weiß, wie lange der hält.” Und da ist noch die Frage der Quellensteuer. Wenn Klubs an ihre ausländischen Profis Prämien bezahlen, sind die Steuerbehörden zu bequem, von diesem Geld die Steuern einzutreiben. Sie verlangen deshalb, dass die Vereine sie pauschal bezahlen. Auch eine Benachteiligung im internationalen Vergleich.

DFB-Präsident Theo Zwanziger seinerseits war erbost über die kürzlich erfolge Anhörung im Sportausschuss des Bundestages. Noch nie, betonte er, habe sich der DFB so „abgebürstet” gefühlt wie an diesem Tag. Es ging um die Ansetzung eines Bundesligaspiels am Sonntag um 15.30 Uhr.

Einige Amateurvereine hatten lauthals protestiert. Ohne Wissen der DFB- und DFL-Vertreter waren auch  Kritiker geladen worden.

Zwanziger: „Ich dachte bislang, Politik sei dem Gemeinwohl verpflichtet und müsse sich deshalb um Interessenausgleich bemühen. Wir im Fußball tun das jedenfalls, denn wir sehen die Gesamtheit. Ich habe kein Verständnis dafür, dass Interessenvertretern, die nicht demokratisch legitimiert sind, eine solche Bühne verschafft wurde. Der Sportausschuss hatte an diesem Tag keinen guten Tag. Der Fußball ist nicht dazu da, dass über ihn der Wahlkampf der Parteien vorbereitet wird.”

Zwanziger und Rauball hätten sich gewünscht, dass sie Jürgen Rüttgers, Ministerpräsident des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, diese Aussagen ins Stammbuch hätten schreiben können. Aber der war zu dem Zeitpunkt, nachdem er im Medienzentrum noch hastig ein Stück Kuchen verspeist hatte, schon längst wieder entschwebt.

Lang erwartet, nun ist es endlich fertig (bzw. kann fortgeschrieben werden): Ein sensationelles journalistisches Internetprojekt über den Einfluss der Mafia im osteuropäischen Fußball, mitfinanziert von den Vereinten Nationen (UN Democracy Fund) im Rahmen des Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Projects (OCCRP) von Paul Radu und Drew Sullivan. (btw ist das ein sehr schönes Beispiel dafür, wie Journalismus im Internet auch finanziert werden kann: über internationale Organisationen, Stiftungen und Projekte)

Voila: Organized Crime Plays Football. Ein wenig zu diesem Thema findet man ja auch hier im Blog, etwa die Geschichte über Alimsan Tochtachunow inklusive der Reaktion aus Zürich.

Football has ugly, sometimes lethal aspects not immediately obvious to the billions of fans around the world who watch their favorite teams in stadiums or on television.

Fans of this most popular of all team sports in the world know that players are transferred from one team to another and that hefty sums go to teams for giving up players. They are less likely to know that every player transfer offers a tempting chance to grab some of the hundreds of millions of Euros at play in the global shifting of players.

Fans, players, reporters, heads of clubs and football referees who get in the way of the management of the Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina or have publicly criticized their work have faced tremendous pressures. Some of them have been suspended or fired and many received phone calls to stop, even death threats.

Fans of this most popular of all team sports in the world know that players are transferred from one team to another and that hefty sums go to teams for giving up players. They are less likely to know that every player transfer offers a tempting chance to grab some of the hundreds of millions of Euros at play in the global shifting of players.

Occasionally an investigation in one country or another shines a brief light onto these transactions, but the larger picture has remained shadowed.

Until several months ago, that is, when teams of reporters for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of investigative reporters, began a simultaneous look at the business of football in southeast Europe and the former Soviet Union. They found networks of agents and power stakeholders quietly skimming transfer fees and working through tax havens and companies with shell proxies to avoid taxes. (…)

Organized crime, tempted by big money and prestige, has moved into football clubs, OCCRP has documented. In post-transition Bulgaria some 200 killings have been linked to football Among the dead are15 club leaders who attained their posts through questionable means.

In Ukraine, while the Oligarchs have moved beyond their beginningss to invest in teams, specific organized crime mobs own teams in the Crimea and Transcarpathyia. One former prosecutor said the Crimea had become so infiltrated and influenced by mobsters that law enforcement stopped calling the mobs gangs and started calling them organized crime communities. In one case, a mob leader billeted hundreds of armed men on stadium property, which was to be used as a staging area to help influence elections.

In Romania, major football agents, brothers Victor and Ioan Becali, were hit with money laundering charges. They are cousins of one of Romania’s richest men, Gigi Becali, who also owns the Steaua football club. The Becali brothers went on trial with famed player, Georghe “Gica” Popescu, who worked with the brothers on international football transfers.

Journalists who worked on these stories come from the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism (CRJI), the Bulgarian Investigative Journalism Center (BIJC), joined by OCCRP reporters from Serbia, Macedonia and Ukraine.

They were joined in a region-wide look at football by colleagues at the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) in Sarajevo, which produced a series of stories on football in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Efforts there showed an association whose managers are on trial for millions of KMs in taxes and fees owed to the governments, people on the board with unsavory criminal records and such predictability of results that bet shops expect games to be fixed. They included interviews with coaches and with a former referee who outlines the pressures to call games in the home team’s favor. They address problems threats and pressure that critics of football can expect, including anonymous death threats and the criticism that comes from an unlikely source-the national team’s largest fan group.

• Andrew Jennings hat im Glasgower Sunday Herald schon über das Balkan-Projekt berichtet: Where football really is a matter of life and death

Es gibt Neues von einem meiner Lieblingsfunktionäre. Natürlich handelt es sich um einen Fußballfunktionär, einen ganz wichtigen sogar. Der Fifa-Vizepräsident und allmächtige CONCACAF-Despot Jack Austin Warner, in der Branche wegen seiner brutalen Abzockerqualitäten auch Jack the Ripper genannt, mag die Socca Warrior immer noch nicht entlohnen, wie es sich gehört. Dieses Foto, Jack zeigt gern mit nacktem Finger auf Menschen, die er nicht mag (er brüllt auch gern ganz schrecklich ungehörige Worte und legt schon mal Hand an), entstand im Mai 2004 beim Fifa-Kongress im Carrousel du Louvre in Paris.

Mein Freund Andrew Jennings hat der unendlichen Geschichte von Gier, Betrug, Vetternwirtschaft Unterschlagung und Korruption unter Fußballfunktionären ein weiteres Kapitel hinzugefügt, das ich gern mit freundlicher Genehmigung veröffentliche. In Kurzfassung ist die Geschichte heute im Glasgower Sunday Herald erschienen (pdf gibt es hier), auf AJ’s Website finden sich etliche Dokumente dazu. Und hier folgt nach dem Jennings-Stück noch das wunderbare Kapitel unseres gemeinsamen Freundes Lasana Liburd, freier Journalist aus T&T, im Buch “Korruption im Sport”. Ich weiß, das ist ein bisschen viel zu lesen, aber es ist ja ein Sonntagnachmittag, den man lieber daheim verbringen sollte. Zum Beispiel mit dieser Lektüre.

Lasana, das sei kurz gesagt für alle, die hier noch nicht so oft vorbei geschaut haben, wurde Anfang 2006 nach einigen Enthüllungsgeschichten über die Machenschaften von Jack the Ripper vom selbigen Fußballganoven mit dem Entzug der Akkreditierung für die WM 2006 bestraft. Was Solidarität ausmachen kann: Nach Protesten von Journalisten – und weil der damalige Fifa-Medienverantwortliche Andreas Herren im Gegensatz zu anderen eben doch ein gutes Herz hat – wurde Lasana aber als WM-Reporter zugelassen. Zum Ärger des Blatter-Stimmenbeschaffers Jack, der es in wenigen Jahren auf märchenhafte Weise vom karg entlohnten Geschichtslehrer zum Multimillionär und einem der einflussreichsten Männer der Karibik gebracht hat. Okay, aber ich schweife ab, alles passt nicht in einen Blogeintrag. Hier also der jüngste Streich von AJ mit meiner letzten Vorbemerkung: Mir fällt nichts ein, was sich nicht mit Originaldokumenten belegen ließe.

Jack Warner still won’t pay Soca Warriors their 2006 World Cup money

exclusive: Andrew Jennings

The 2006 World Cup generated billions of dollars – but not a cent has been paid to the heroic Soca Warriors from Trinidad & Tobago who say they’ve been ripped off by FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.

Twenty-eight months after the final whistle the team from the smallest country ever to qualify are still being denied their share of revenues from sponsors and other sources, despite defeating Warner at an arbitration hearing.

As soon as it looked likely Trinidad would qualify for Germany the Warner family put their football money-making machine into gear.

At the travel agents owned by Warner and his wife Maureen, son Daryan began acquiring, illicitly with daddy’s help, more than 5,000 finals tickets later sold for an estimated $3 million profit.

Other son Daryll Warner was put in charge of a private company, ‘Local Organising Company Germany 2006 Ltd’ which would vacuum up millions of dollars in fees from sponsors wanting to be associated with the Warriors.

Warner Snr, who terms himself ‘Special Advisor’ to the Trinidad football federation, would negotiate directly with the players about their share of the proceeds.

In early January 2006 Warner installed himself at the super-luxury five-star Mandarin Hotel in Mayfair (“One of the capital’s most distinguished hotels”) and the players were summoned to his presence. They wanted to know, what had sponsors paid? What other income from tickets, TV and the government? I’ll have a spreadsheet drawn up, promised Warner.

The months pass, the team trains but the promised spreadsheet doesn’t appear. ‘Soon’ promises Warner. ‘We’re working on it,’ say his aides. Days before the Warriors’ first game, against Sweden, goalkeeper Shaka Hislop asks Warner yet again. ‘Sorry,’ says Jack, ‘no time now until after the tournament is over.’

Nonetheless the team play brilliantly to hold Sweden to a goalless draw. Then the festering anger boils up. Every time they touch the ball they’re making money for Warner – and getting nothing themselves. They demand Warner come to their hotel but he arrives so late most – but not all – have gone to bed.

One player told me, ‘Warner still hadn’t told us how much sponsors were paying and what our share was going to be. Many of our squad play in minor leagues around the world, don’t earn much, had worked hard to get to the final 32 teams. Their reasonable expectation was enough to set up pension funds, retire with some dignity.’

Warner must have realised that if he didn’t calm them fast, he might not have a team for the game against England in three days time. OK, he said. I’ll give you 50% – and I’m so proud of your achievements.

The Warriors could hold up their heads after losing 2-0 to the millionaire England players and lost no respect going down another two goals to Paraguay – and then packed their bags.

More months passed. Small creatures lived out their life cycles and the leaves fell. Then in October Warner’s accountant produced the long-awaited spreadsheet.

It was surprisingly short. ‘Consistent with normal accounting principles we have made estimates in such instances where specific documentation was unavailable.’ There were more holes. Sponsors appeared to have paid less than their earlier press releases claimed. Some sponsors – and their money – had fallen off the page.

And another surprise! One third of their money was being withheld to fund the next campaign, to qualify for 2010.  Warner insisted that sponsors had insisted – until the claim became so lacking in credibility that he abandoned it, gracelessly.

But here was the bottom line: Warner had sold their bodies for millions – and their share was £494 a man!

Dwight Yorke told reporters, ‘The contracts we enter into are not worth the paper they are written on.’ The majority of the squad hired London sports lawyer Mike Townley. Warner promptly blacklisted them saying, ‘I lose no sleep, I have nothing to be worried about, absolutely nothing.’ For players needing regular international games to keep work permits, it was a disaster.

Jack’s crony Trinidad Federation general secretary Richard Groden accused the team of  ‘delinquency’ and ‘less than honourable motives.’ Warner added that they were ‘greedy’.

Six more months passed and in mid-2007 Warner popped up to commend his officials (code for himself) for their ‘principled stand in resisting being blackmailed by certain players.’ He added, ‘Their demands are not justified and until they drop all court action, they remain outside the pale of organised football.’

Lawyer Townley turned to FIFA. Was this a case for FIFA’s Ethics Committee, chair Seb Coe? No, Townley was told, it’s an internal matter, we refer you to Jack Warner to sort it out.

Townley made a Freedom of Information request to the Trinidad Government. That brought another surprise. Warner had neglected to reveal the additional £18 million contributed by taxpayers to the campaign’s cost – freeing up more money for the players.

It wasn’t looking so good for Warner at home so he agreed to switch the dispute from a Trinidad courtroom to arbitration in faraway London.

That hearing was at the end of April this year and its confidential Decision was passed to both parties on May 19. The Warriors won all they asked for, disclosure of all contracts and revenues raked in by the Warners and 50% of the total. The Warriors were looking to get – at last – the big money they are owed.

Within hours the report was leaked to the Trinidad Guardian whose sports editor has written two paid-for biographies of Warner that find no fault in him – ever.

Warner claimed to be shocked. The other side must have leaked! Such an outrageous breach of confidence must nullify the arbitration decision. So he still won’t pay and he still won’t disclose. To muddy the waters more Warner has offered some money to the Warriors who didn’t hire a lawyer and is going to court in Trinidad in January to get the arbitration award cancelled.

There’s not been a peep from sponsors Adidas, KFC, Ebay, Carib beer, British Gas and a host of regional companies who gained lustre from the efforts of the Warriors. 

It will be a chilly Christmas for some of the Heroes of 2006.

Zwei Links zum Betrug an den Socca Warriors:

• Torhüter Shaka Hislops Vortrag auf der Play the Game Konferenz vergangenen November in Reykjavik
• Ein Zwischenstand von Lasana Liburd im Mai 2008: FIFA Vice-president loses dispute over World Cup bonus to players

Und hier das Kapitel aus “Korruption im Sport”

The Jack Warner production

How a humble school teacher became a multimillionaire

von Lasana Liburd

Jack Austin Warner, FIFA Vice President and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) special advisor, was getting fed up by January 2006. He had only just taken Trinidad and Tobago to the senior World Cup finals – his and only his words – for the first time in the country’s history. Forget six foot seven defender Dennis Lawrence, who scored the winning goal in Bahrain to send the self-titled Soca Warriors to the World Cup; forget team captain Dwight Yorke and impressive newcomer Aurtis Whitley or even wily Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker. It was Warner’s administrative genius that made it all possible – a premise that centred on his influence as President of the North American and Caribbean Confederation CONCACAF in getting an extra half place for the CONCACAF region, via a Play Off with the fifth placed Asian team.

How could Trinidad and Tobago show its gratitude for Warner’s work behind the scenes? Perhaps, the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) party would bestow on him a national award or statue and his peers might sing his praises with clever calypsos. Those would be nice. But Warner generally prefers cash; lots of it. 

Everyone gets the shaft

The dust had barely settled on Trinidad and Tobago’s historic qualification for the Germany World Cup last November before Warner requested a blank cheque from the local government – to help the team prepare, of course. The government balked and was promptly criticised for lacking patriotism and being ignorant of the necessary ingredients to create a successful team. Patriotism and football success, you see, come at a high cost and Warner has appointed himself collector.

At 63 years of age, Warner has known only two careers. He worked as a school teacher, which carries a salary between the range of TT$ 4.000 (523 Euros) and TT$ 12.000 (1.569 Euros) in Trinidad and Tobago, and a football administrator. Yet, six years ago, his personal worth was estimated at upwards of £10 million (14.4 million Euros) by one British magazine. He can easily be worth double that today from the living he earns through the “beautiful game”, the world’s most popular sport.

Warner is, by his own admission, a liar and a thief. He admitted in his biography to overselling Trinidad’s National Stadium by over 10.000 tickets for a crucial qualifier in 1989 when the football team came within one point of the 1990 World Cup. It created an explosive situation on November 19, 1989, with the stadium packed well beyond its capacity and transformed into a potential death trap while thousands of irate fans remonstrated outside the ground. The then government, the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), ordered an inquiry into the fiasco although it was never completed. By then, Warner was promoted to the position of FIFA Vice President and had the political clout to slow his pursuers as well as the ability to source funds through which he could soften his image.

The “Warner production” was on the road starring the T&TFF special advisor – he created the position himself – as “Robin Hoodlum”. A well-intentioned sport administrator operating in a world filled with wealthy, arrogant European bigwigs who he would hold upside down by their ankles and deprive of their largesse for the sake of the poorer Caribbean nations. Sort of like “Shaft”, a fictional ‘Afro-American’ hero, who battled the powers-that-be on behalf of his downtrodden “brothers”.

In 2000, as Germany and England fought for hosting rights for the 2006 World Cup, Warner strutted around the Caribbean offering European gifts and photo opportunities with Bobby Charlton and Franz Beckenbauer.

“What do you want? Is that all? Don’t worry… Germany will pay for it.”

Only, with Warner, everyone gets the shaft.

Certain cheques and balances?

In 2001, the tiny twin island republic with a population of just over 1.3 million, prepared to stage the FIFA Under-17 World Championship. Trinidad and Tobago would get the first opportunity to glimpse the starlets of the future like Argentina’s Carlos Tevez and Spain’s Fernando Torres.

Just stare spellbound at the technique on show on the fields and smile into the television cameras. Whatever you do, God forbid, do not look behind you. If you did, you might have spotted Warner pocketing multi-million dollar deals from IT and catering to travel and security contracts.

He must reminisce with fondness on construction deal for the World Cup stadia, though. His performance would have sent shivers up the spines of most sales agents.

First, Warner convinced the PNM that such an important tournament (chuckle, chuckle) must have the very best facilities and so the government approved the construction of four new stadia and the renovation of the national stadium at a cost of TT$ 140 million (18.3 million Euros). These four stadia were built minutes away from existing grounds that needed merely another stand or two and a coat of paint to pass FIFA standards. But the government, who clearly did not see the state of the Mexican grounds that hosted the 1986 World Cup, agreed to Warner’s proposal.

Then Warner benefited from a stroke of good fortune. The PNM was replaced by the United National Congress (UNC) as the country’s ruling party. Warner is a chief financier of the UNC party.

“Can I have another look at that budget, Mr Prime Minister?”

A few scribbles later and the cost of four new stadia and the renovation of a fifth shot from TT$ 140 million (18.3 million Euros) to TT$ 365 million (47.7 million Euros). The price hike, according to the UNC, was due to the inclusion of necessary fittings such as lights, seats and – cue drum roll – playing fields. What Warner exactly had planned to build with the initial TT$ 140 million budget remains a mystery.

There was still a constitutional problem. The Trinidad and Tobago law requires that the use of State money comes with certain cheques and balances. Warner sidestepped this requirement by taking a bank loan with the RGM group of companies which the government agreed to repay. The deception was complete when, on October 27, 1999, a company named Concacaf – not to be confused with the confederation, CONCACAF – was formed in Trinidad under Warner’s directorship while another company called the “FIFA Stadia Project” was set up to execute the stadium contracts. Warner and his son, Daryan, were both among the list of signatories on the latter company.

“Mr Warner, is FIFA in charge or your FIFA? Did you say that cheque was made out to CONCACAF or Concacaf?”

Needless to say, it was a very confusing time for anyone who tried to find out what Warner and FIFA was doing with State funds.

Today, the government – the PNM is again in power – repays that loan to the tune of TT$ 4 million (523.000 Euros) a month while UNC boss and ex-prime minister Basdeo Panday faces fraud charges for an unrelated matter in the local high court. Warner, for the record, is now the UNC’s deputy political leader and openly supports Panday against criticism from even within the party’s rank and file. 

Another money machine: Simpaul’s Travel Agency

Fast forward to November 2005; Warner’s attempt to get unlimited access to State funds received a negative response. Unabashed, he turned his attention to the pockets of Trinidad and Tobago’s football fans. On December 13, 2005, Warner announced in a T&TFF press conference that Simpaul’s Travel Agency purchased the exclusive right to the nation’s World Cup ticket allocation. A Simpaul representative then revealed that a batch of three first round tickets valued at TT$ 2.254 (295 Euros) would cost fans TT$ 30.000 (3.928 Euros) as part of a package deal that included twelve nights accommodation in a double-occupancy room – both guests pay full fare – but not airfare.

Simpaul’s subsequent advertisements left no room for ambiguity: “Ticket or leave it!”

Warner stood to gain as much as TT$ 17.000 (2.223 Euros) profit for each package sold.

On December 25, 2005, the Trinidad Express Newspaper proved conclusively, in the first of a three-part series written by myself, that Warner and his wife, Maureen, and sons Daryan and Darryl, were the owners of Simpaul’s Travel.

Warner might be adept at shaking Europeans from their ankles; but now here was proof that he was manhandling Trinidad and Tobago fans by the groin region. Angry letters crammed the opinion pages of balanced daily newspapers while irate fans besieged radio talk programs.

On January 3, 2006, Warner responded in a press conference. He referred to me as a “creature”, an “inveterate liar” and a “political hatchet man”. He admitted to owning Simpaul’s Travel but denied a conflict of interest. And the ticket prices stood.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning, on January 6, suggested the possibility of government intervention on behalf of his citizens prompting a telling response from the administrator frustrated by his limited ability to cash in on the nation’s euphoria. “If I knew this is what qualification (for Trinidad and Tobago) meant,” said Warner. “I would have had second thoughts.”

The T&TFF branded me “persona non grata” and I was denied the opportunity to apply for media accreditation for the 2006 World Cup. There was also a strong hint by the T&TFF that I forget about covering national football at any level in the future as well.

By now, though, the international media got wind of the scandal and FIFA was on the back foot.

On January 13, 2006, FIFA appointed Ernst and Young as “independent auditors” to look into discrepancies regarding global World Cup ticket sales. Days later, Warner was scheduled for a meeting with the FIFA Ethics and Fair Play Committee on February 16.

Warner made a bit of history for himself on February 16. He became the first FIFA executive committee member to be convicted of bringing the game into disrepute after the Ethics and Fair Play Committee ruled that he had violated its code of ethics and was guilty of a conflict of interests. FIFA’s Executive Committee would decide on the penalty for Warner’s crime in March which could be serious enough, by FIFA statutes, to merit expulsion.

The FIFA Press Office also accredited me for the 2006 World Cup. Not a good month for Warner.

But then Trinidad and Tobago’s FIFA Vice President is not called “Teflon Warner” for nothing. One could almost sense the tide turning when German Local Organising Committee (LOC) chairman and football icon Franz Beckenbauer made light of the episode on a trip to Trinidad. “It’s not our business,” Beckenbauer told the T&T press. “Our business is to give the participating countries the tickets they deserve. What they are doing with the tickets, it’s not our business.”

Was this the extent of Europe’s sympathy for disenfranchised Trinidad and Tobago fans? Or was Warner regarded as a special case and near untouchable within FIFA’s corridors?

FIFA’s blind eyes

Warner’s influence is best evaluated in terms of his political power. CONCACAF has 35 nations. He boasts of the ability to direct 35 of them how to vote at FIFA elections. In a recent TV programme called “The untouchable”, which was broadcasted in more then 20 countries, Warner has explained his total support for the FIFA President: “I have told Mr Blatter that whenever he is running for an election, he doesn’t have to come to campaign in CONCACAF. He doesn’t have to waste his time. CONCACAF has 35 votes – he gets 35 votes! I have told him to spend more time in the areas in which he has some doubts. And I will help him in those areas. We are benefiteries of FIFA’s vision and therefore we believe that it is only fair that we show – from time to time – our loyalty. Simple as that.”

Simple as that. Warner might claim to be ignorant about terms like ‘conflict of interest’ but he is quite capable at mathematics.

After his rise from nondescript referee to Trinidad and Tobago FA general secretary in 1973, Warner quickly grasped the potential of the Caribbean as a block. Mexico was easily CONCACAF’s top football nation and similarly bossed the region at an administrative level. But the pervading feeling outside Mexico and Central America was that the region’s Caribbean and English speaking nations were being neglected.Warner persuaded these nations that he would make a difference once given a presidential role. As CONCACAF president since 1990 he again used the region’s support and, in particular, Caribbean islands who sometimes had populations as small as 15.000 persons, for political leverage within FIFA.

He ingratiated himself with FIFA’s long-time President Joao Havelange and, when his successor Joseph Blatter faced a ‘no confidence’ motion, he again came to the rescue several times. The payback, it seemed, was a consistent blind eye to his wheeling’s within the CONCACAF region.

Warner seemed confident enough in March 2006 that his connections would not let him down and went as far as to chide the global body for its handling of the situation.

“I asked FIFA for advice, and they give the advice I asked them for to the world,” said Warner, who insisted that he initiated a meeting with the Ethics Committee. “I have to deal with that in March. I have been associated with all kinds of memories before, and it wouldn’t be the last time, it won’t be the first time. It hasn’t fazed me in the least. And believe me, I am okay. I’ll land on my feet. Right now, I’ll tell you this, though, I’m not trembling in my shoes.”

The storm clouds that threatened to envelop Warner at one stage were quickly disappearing. True to form, Warner emerged unscathed from his date with the FIFA Executive Committee in March which declared that is was “satisfied” that Warner would live up to ticket regulations. The special advisor even went through the trouble of removing his name and those of his family from Simpaul’s list of directors although there is little evidence that the legal change was more than merely cosmetic.

A buoyant Warner immediately celebrated by printing full page advertisements in the local papers toasting his own virtuosity and mocking the cynics “masquerading as sport writers” who had briefly troubled him. 

Much more moneybags

So did any good come from the sordid episode?

Well, in the midst of FIFA’s declared investigation, Trinidad and Tobago fans woke up to news of how they might apply for World Cup tickets at virtually cost price. Not a world of Simpaul’s Travel although they continued to offer all-inclusive packages.

Perhaps, Warner might emerge chaster for the flirtation with danger and the shock of his sudden dip in popularity.

At the very least, Trinidad and Tobago fans could once more look forward to the World Cup without such ugly distractions. The national team reunites in Trinidad for the first time since its qualification and supporters are anxious to salute their heroes in a May 10 friendly against Peru. It will cost them an unprecedented amount of money to do so, though. Tickets are on sale for TT$ 300 or 39 Euros (uncovered stands) and TT$ 500 or 65 Euros (covered stands) which represents more than a one hundred percent increase from the qualifying stage when tickets cost TT$ 100 (13 Euros) and TT$ 200 (26 Euros).

To put Warner’s proposed ticket prices into perspective, English fans will pay £25 or 36 Euros to watch England play Jamaica in May while German friendly’s against other nations who, unlike Peru, will actually play in the 2006 World Cup range between TT$ 115 (15 Euros) and TT$ 458 (60 Euros). In Germany, mind you, the average wage is TT$ 15.910 or 2.083 Euros per month as opposed to TT$ 3.500 or 458 Euros per month in Trinidad and Tobago.

The local government again asked Warner to be reasonable and pointed out that it had budgeted for the costs of staging the friendly in its TT$ 45 million budget for the team while the T&TFF also stood to receive at least TT$ 39 million in appearance fees from FIFA at the World Cup.

But Warner’s hand is again stretching for the groin. FIFA’s moneybags are being emptied too: Warner claimed that the TT$ 39 million (5 million Euros) FIFA payout for the World Cup qualification is subject to a 26 percent German tax. But I have asked FIFA and the German LOC – they denied any such tax on revenue paid to associations.

The more things change. The Jack Warner show continues.

Mehr über Jack Warner und seinen märchenhaften Aufstieg in den internationalen Fußball-Geldadel:

• Lasana Liburds Artikel mit kompletter Dokumentation sind u. a. nachzulesen im Trinidad & Tobago Express (www.trinidadexpress.com).
• Jennings, A.: FOUL!!, Harper Collins 2006.
• Kistner, T.; Weinreich, J.: Das Milliardenspiel – Fußball, Geld und Medien, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 1998.
• Sugden, J.; Tomlinson, A.: Badfellas – FIFA Family at War, Mainstream Publishing 2003.
• Die Welt: „Jack the Ripper im Verhör” (17. Februar 2006, Seite 20); „Krähen unter sich” (6. März 2006, Seite 23); „FIFA hilft Vizechef im WM-Kartenskandal aus der Bredouille” (20. März 2006, Seite 24).
• Berliner Zeitung: “Ein ultra-fantastischer Job” (2. Oktober 2001, Seite 40); “Ermittlungen gegen FIFA-Exekutivmitglied” (8. Juni 2002, Seite 39); “Joseph und seine Brüder” (22. Mai 2004, Magazin); “Hauptgewinn für Jack the Ripper” (7. Januar 2006, Seite 16).
• Frankfurter Rundschau: “Jack the Ripper und der Fluch der Karibik” (14. Januar 2006, Seite 26).
• Manager Magazin: “Schiebung im Spiel?” (1. Mai 2003, Seite 52).
• Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Nur stark vermittelnd” (25. August 2001, Seite 42); “Gefahr für Jack the Ripper” (18. April 2002, Seite 31); “Warners Drohung” (19. April 2002, Seite 32); “Eine Orgel, die schön klingt” (22. April 2003, Seite 23); “Reise mit Jack the Ripper” (7. Januar 2006, Seite 40).
• Weinreich, J.: The untouchable. Schweden/Dänemark, 2004.

Julio Humberto Grondona, der Pate des argentinischen Fußballs, trägt einen schweren, goldenen Siegelring. “Todo pasa” steht drauf. Es ist das Motto des 77-jährigen Senior Vice President des Fußball-Weltverbandes Fifa und argentinischen Verbandspräsidenten (quasi auf Lebenszeit). Alles geht vorbei, ich mach das schon. Don Julio, dicker Kumpel vom Fifa-Sepp (wie man auf dem Foto sehen kann) und seit vielen Jahren auch Chef der Fifa-Finanzkommission (sic!), hat bislang alle Klippen umschifft. Sein jüngster Coup: um seinen Posten zu retten, verpflichtete er kurzerhand das Drogen-Wrack Diego Armando Maradona als Nationaltrainer. Und stellte ihm Carlos Bilardo als Teammanager zur Seite. Todo pasa.

Ãœber Diego ist anderswo viel zu lesen. Ich will hier auch nicht mit der Geschichte einer Sünde langweilen, denn ich habe mir im vergangenen Jahrhundert, damals spielte Diego für den SSC Neapel, mal in Leipzig ein Autogramm von der Hand Gottes zeichnen lassen. Was ich vielmehr zur aktuellen Diskussion beisteuern kann, ist ein Kapitel meines argentinischen Freundes Ezequiel Fernandez Moores aus unserem gemeinsamen Buch “Korruption im Sport”. Der wunderbare Ezequiel kennt sie alle: Diego, Don Julio und noch ein paar andere Spitzbuben. Okay, der Text ist zwei Jahre alt, doch egal, man muss ihn gelesen haben, um ein bisschen was von Don Julio zu verstehen.

The Godfather Don Julio

The Argentine dictator behind Fifa President Joseph Blatter

Julio Humberto Grondona, FIFA’s Senior Vice President, the great Godfather of South American football and President of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) since 1979, proudly remembers when his mandate began: Almost together with Woytila’s papacy and Diego Armando Maradona’s successful international career. But Maradona left the field in 1997 and John Paul the Second died in 2005.

In his twenty-seven-year mandate (nun sind es schon 29 Jahre), Grondona did not only survive John Paul the Second and the sporting Maradona, but also four de facto Presidents and eight democratic Presidents in Argentina. He also survived eighty-one supporters who died as victims of the endless violence that rules football in Argentina. He survived almost forty-three cases of doping, eight strikes by players and three strikes by referees. Grondona also survived about fifty legal raids on his own offices, the AFA offices and those of his partners.

Grondona is now seventy-four years old (jetzt 77). His age is not an obstacle. Grondona has already warned that in 2007 he will begin his eighth mandate which will last until 2011; by then he will be thirty-two years at the head of the AFA. Thirty-two years with Don Julio. He likes people to call him that way. Don Julio could mean respect. But who would forget the wonderful Don Vito Corleone interpreted by Marlon Brando? In fact, the other nickname given to Grondona in Argentina is “The Godfather”.

As Chairman of FIFA’s Finance Committee and the Marketing and Television Advisory Board he aims some of the most important positions in one of the most powerful industries of world entertainment: football. Grondona, as he once said, lived his first nine years in a room in Sarandí, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. In this room, without even a refrigerator, he lived together with his parents and his five brothers. His life improved rapidly. Grondona went to a good private school and afterwards to the public University. But nobody thought in those years that Grondona, the grandson of Italian immigrants, would later become the master and boss in Sarandí. He has built buildings, offices and an asylum, sustained with his own money. In December 2004, he also donated half a million dollars to build a sports complex. But the money belonged to FIFA, to the Goal Project, managed by his friend Mohamed Bin Hammam from Qatar.

We know FIFA’s Goal Project sponsors the development of football in the Third World. This aid means works and money – and also votes for officials in the assemblies. Well, Grondona decided that FIFA’s help should be granted to his neighbors in Sarandí. “Who wouldn’t like to be Santa Claus?” said the Godfather when he inaugurated the buildings. But like in Sarandi’s Third World, Grondona also is Santa Claus in Geneva’s First World. As FIFA’s Senior Vice President he was the saviour of the new Olympic Stadium in Geneva, avoiding its bankruptcy. Now, in his honour, the Meyrin FC from Geneva plays the “Julio Grondona Fair Play Cup”.

The world record holder

Grondona, who does not speak English, has no e-mail and has no interest in the internet world, no longer lives in a room without a refrigerator. He spends most of the year in the Savoy Hotel in Zurich, in a six-hundred-Euro room. Obviously, it is the FIFA who pays. For every day he spends outside Argentina he gets seven hundred dollars as travelling allowances. Not to mention the one hundred thousand dollars annual salary as a member of the FIFA’s Executive Committee. Don Julio inherited “Lombardi and Grondona”, a hardware store and a deposit from his father. So, for the friendly media, he is a simple ironmonger. But on September 5, 1998, he was unveiled by an investigation done by the Argentine magazine Noticias. Crucecita, Batco, Baprisud, Conenar, Genaversa are some of the companies in which Don Julio is either a partner or the owner, together with his family or friends, such as Eduardo De Luca, secretary general of the South American Football Confederation (Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, CONMEBOL). The scope of business goes from construction to gas stations; from an undertaking company to a motel; from bovine cattle to crop fields. A huge and amazing patrimonial increase if we take into account that Grondona has never received a salary during his years as President of the AFA. 

What did he do to amass such a fortune? “I have not invented anything”, said the Godfather. “I just imitated João Havelange”. His master Havelange spent twenty-four years as FIFA’s President. At the head of the AFA, Grondona has already spent twenty-seven. What does he mean by imitating Havelange? Signing deals with Coca-Cola, Mastercard, TV-stations; without any bids, but with endless guarantees. The AFA’s contract with television is a world record. It started in 1986 and will end in 2014. Thirty years of partnership with a producing company called Torneos and Competencias (TyC); a partnership that has made TyC rich and football very poor. Today, TyC belongs to an unknown Swiss fund based in the Virgin Islands, and to American investors.

With the profits they received from the football, its first owners bought TV stations, magazines such as El Gráfico and a financial newspaper called Ambito Financiero. They built an extremely modern building for the company and opened sports clothes shops, among many kinds of business. Once, they even rented Argentinos Juniors, Diego Maradona’s first club. In the nineties, the annual income by a star journalist working for TyC was over one million dollars. More than what TyC paid to many of the First Division impoverished clubs of Argentine football. Today, these poor clubs owe the extremely rich AFA forty-three million dollars.

TyC became partners with the owners of cable television, which managed to have five million subscribers in Argentina – a record figure in Latin America. As a consequence, TyC was at both sides of the counter. It sold the football rights to itself. Daniel Lalín, the controversial President of Racing Club, one of the most powerful clubs in Argentina, denounced it: the AFA should control its partner. Lalín was soon expelled from football, Racing went bankrupt and the club’s controller, Liliana Ripoll – who had threatened to denounce the “illegal” contract between AFA and TyC – today works for AFA. What about Racing? Racing now belongs to a stock company with Ethiopian capitals, based in a tax haven. In the year 2000, an Argentine judge investigated the contract between AFA and TyC. He ordered a raid on the AFA’s and TyC’s offices. A TyC employee admitted having personally given Grondona an envelope containing eighty thousand dollars, without any receipt, in his house in Sarandí; and that other leaders of Argentine football dropped by at TyC offices to get some envelopes with money. This judge, Juan Mahdjoubián, even succeeded in proceeding against Grondona and other managers. But a TV program of a station associated with TyC investigated the judge with a hidden cam. It discovered that the judge demanded illegal money in some of his cases. The investigation on the AFA and TyC, obviously, didn’t get anywhere.

The story of Carlos Ferrer, another judge who also investigated the TV contracts, was similar to that of Mahdjoubián’s. A hidden camera unveiled him as corrupt. And the same happened to Carlos Branca, a third judge who also investigated the AFA, in relation with its anti-doping controls. The three judges were victims of the hidden cameras belonging to the same TV program, and the three of them were removed from office. One must be extremely clean to investigate the football business in my country. 

Long live the king

What about TyC? TyC today pays about thirty million dollars a year to broadcast the Argentine championship on TV. Grondona also helped it with the rights to broadcast the Argentine national team matches. It wanted to broadcast the matches through the pay-per-view system. The Congress did not allow it. Next, it unluckily tried to transfer the rights to a ghost company based in a tax haven. But it did not matter. The Argentine national team is a big business anyway. The South American World Cup qualifying matches are held throughout an extraordinary long period of time: eighteen rounds during two years. Eighty-two matches with just ten national teams. The European clubs complain. Their players are always on the road. But Grondona is convinced that the South American qualifying will keep its fabulous business running even for the 2010 World Cup. No matter, what Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona have to say. No matter, what FIFA President Joseph Blatter has to say. This is power indeed.

TyC and its partners also have rights on championships organized by the South American Football Confederation. Grondona is also Don Julio in the CONMEBOL, as the South American Confederation is known. Its President, Nicolás Leoz, is from Paraguay. But Leoz is too docile to Grondona’s power, as well as to that of Ricardo Teixeira, President of the Brazilian Federation CBF since 1989. Teixeira reached this position thanks to his former father-in-law, João Havelange. The point is that mandates in South American football last for decades. Leoz has been President of CONMEBOL since 1986. Imagine what the scope of their power is like that, some years ago, these men decided that elections are not necessary in CONMEBOL. TyC from Grondona’s Argentina and Traffic from Teixeira’s Brazil share the TV business of South American football. Long live Leoz.

Protected by the media

And journalists? What do they say about Grondona? Do they investigate contracts, balance sheets and partnerships? Some of them do, like Víctor Hugo Morales or Gustavo Veiga. But it is impossible to investigate Grondona on TV. Almost all football programs, directly or indirectly, depend on TyC; as well as many of their journalists. And it is known that no guarding dog bites the hand of the one who feeds him. Fan crowd or watchdogs? Neither fan crowd, nor watchdogs. Just partners.

The Godfather also discriminates against people. It was during a very kind interview in a program on TyC Sports cable channel: He ate beef, he drank wine and he told many anecdotes. When the program was reaching the end, the journalist asked why there were no Jewish referees in Argentine football First Division. “To be a First Division referee”, answered Grondona, “is something very difficult and Jews have never liked difficult things”. Grondona was accused of discrimination, there was a public reaction by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Grondona was forced to apologize. Shortly after, TyC gathered its main men. The order was quite clear: “Gentlemen, the sports confederations are our partners. We must take care of them, especially of Grondona”.

Grondona is also protected by other media. One of the main partners of TyC is Grupo Clarín, the most powerful multimedia in Argentina: newspapers, radios and TV all over the country. However, Grondona is not concerned about journalism. When in 2000, a journalist told him that he would write a book on his life, Grondona met him for a few minutes and immediately introduced him to his lawyer. “My lawyer will definitely read everything you write”, warned Don Julio, the name given to the book by the journalist who wrote it, Ariel Borenstein.

Grondona also bases his power on another key factor for somebody who knows about football. It is a factor also used by Blatter’s FIFA. Have we forgotten the controversial referee performances in the last World Cup? Uruguay expelled in 2005 its number one referee, Gustavo Méndez, under charges of corruption. Brazil was forced to annul and replay eleven matches in the last national championship after corruption by two referees was confirmed. What about Argentina? Aren’t there any corrupt referees in Argentina? Didn’t International Transparency said in October 2005 that Argentina takes one of the worst positions in its ranking of corrupt countries, with almost three out of ten points? In Argentina, even Grondona boasted on TV about having created a Referee Union to undermine the power of the existing union. In October 2005, justice condemned him for discriminating one of the two unions with economic purposes. One must pose the inevitable question: what kind of links and relations could the AFA establish with the referees it favors?

There are no legal denouncements. But there is astounding evidence: Is it by chance that River Plate, the most winning club in Argentine football, has only been granted one penalty in forty-one matches in 2005? River threatened to go to the ordinary justice. After this, in its next match, River was granted two penalties. In River, there were elections at the end of 2005. Its President, José María Aguilar, has not kneeled down, as many others have, before Grondona. Even worse, Aguilar is the Argentine football manager who is closer to the G-14, the body that gathers the most powerful clubs in Europe and that is opposed to FIFA. When he wanted to speak at the sport’s Congress Foro Social critical to Grondona, the Godfather talk with all the directors invited to the Congress: All of them renounced to be there, Aguilar too. 

Jobs for the juniors

Fernando Miele, a former President of San Lorenzo, was pretty clear when he said the following in Sport Business magazine in 2003: “Without Grondona’s consent, nobody becomes a champion in Argentina”. Miele, who was Vice President of AFA and has been expelled from his club under charges of corruption, has also declared in El Gráfico magazine that “Argentine football is a mafia”. Andrés Ducantezeiler, a former President of Independiente, publicly admitted on the radio that in 2002 his club won the championship because referees played to its favor. What did the AFA do? Did it investigate the self-denouncement? No, it barely removed Ducantenzeiler from his position for two years. Do you know who acts as Independiente’s President today? Julio Comparada, a partner of Grondona’s family in Surcos, the AFA’s insurance company. Comparada, as was published by Un Caño magazine in October 2005, is probably also linked to Grondona’s family through Puntogol, the company in charge of the AFA’s marketing. Of course, nothing is official. Real owners are not in the books. Puntogol used to be ISL before, FIFA’s marketing company until it broke in 2001. The President of ISL Argentina was Rogelio Riganti. He was a supplier of “Lombardi and Grondona”, the company still owned by the Grondona’s in Sarandí. The AFA and its members, as you can see, are a great family. Remember Havelange lessons.

And one more thing about Independiente: The team didn’t receive any penalty in more than 30 matches. But when Comparada began a new championship as the President of the club, Independiente, former Grondona’s club, was beneficiated with seven penalties in the seven first rounds of the last championship (Apertura 2005-06). Javier Castrilli was the only referee that in 1998 dared to denounce that the AFA ordered the protection of certain clubs. He accused Jorge Romo, the referees’ director, but he did not know anything about referees when Grondona appointed him in the AFA. Romo, let it be said, shared the same requisite with Riganti, that of ISL. Romo was also a supplier of “Lombardi and Grondona”. Today, Romo is a member of the FIFA’s Referees Committee and one of his son’s works in TyC. What did Grondona do to stop Castrilli, the referee who dared to denounce him? He attended a referee assembly, yieldingly demanded support and managed to leave Castrilli alone. Today, seven years after, Castrilli airs his opinions about the referees’ tasks on TV. On which channel? On TyC Sports, of course.

Something else about referees. Arsenal is a modest club playing in the First Division. More than attacking, Arsenal must know how to defend itself. However, in its last 125 matches in First Division (until October 2005), Arsenal only had seven players expelled. The other small clubs that also tend to defend themselves were not as fortunate: Olimpo (also until October 2005) had 31 players expelled in 125 matches; Instituto thirteen players in 51 matches; Quilmes 21 players in 87 matches. And what about the powerful River Plate? 22 expelled players in 125 matches – three times as much as Arsenal. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you something: Arsenal was founded by Julio Grondona in 1957 in Sarandí. Today, its President is Julio Grondona Jr., who has already started his career: He told the media that he feels capable of replacing his father in the AFA. And in October 2005 Grondona’s AFA appointed Grondona Jr. as the President of an AFA delegation to Uruguay. Another Havelange lesson.

The journalists only know how to criticize, the establishment of football usually said. Well, but what can we do? What do you prefer? To be partners? We are just witnesses of the battle between what we can describe as old connections (Blatter, Grondona and their friends) and a new connection as it seems to be with Roman Abramovich in Chelsea, the Iranian Kia Joorabchian in Corinthians and globalised money in many clubs all over the world. But the frontiers are not so clear. Humberto Grondona, another Julio Grondona’s son, today is working in Corinthians, Joorabchian’s club investigated in Brazil because of the uncertain origins of MIS’s group money.

“What time do you want it to be?”

Grondona is the most important leader in Argentina’s sport history. He defended football’s autonomy. He once refused to fire a national team’s coach in spite of the government’s pressures. And he resisted pressures to force clubs, which in Argentina perform important social functions as well, to become mere stock companies. He now fights against powerful European clubs which try to buy young talents of South American football at despicable prices, without complying with existent rules and laws. Blatter also says that he won’t permit the victory of European clubs’ greed. But, as we all know, FIFA and AFA, Blatter and Grondona, do not work for the Foundation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

With Grondona, Argentine football also won International Cups, imposed anti-doping controls, had many modest clubs become champions and powerful clubs go down to the B Series. But something must be said: for the big clubs to keep on winning titles, he invented two championships per year. And for the big clubs not to go down to the B series again, he adopted a system that makes an average of the scores obtained in the last three years. A big team can have a bad year, but not three bad years in a row.

Grondona never imposed the AFA’s rules to punish clubs and managers who are accomplices of violent supporters. I insist: Argentine football experienced 74 fatal casualties throughout Grondona’s 27-year-mandate. Nowhere in the world there exists FAVIFA, a body of relatives of football victims – except in Argentina. FAFIVA claimed in AFA’s office in Buenos Aires in April 2005. Nothing has changed in argentine football. Grondona has not imposed its rules to punish those presidents accused of keeping the money resulting from the sale of players for themselves, and of defaulting clubs, such as Eduardo López, President of Newell’s Old Boys. He was condemned by justice under charges of clandestine betting operations and accused of writing more than 1.400 bad checks. In October 2005, he owed seven monthly salaries to his players. López is still the AFA’s International Relations Secretary.

Grondona says that he just complies with the clubs’ mandate. But everybody knows that the AFA and Grondona are the same thing. “To vote against him is to put an end to one’s career as a manager”, said Miele, San Lorenzo’s former President, some time ago. “What time is it?” asks Grondona when he starts the meetings of the AFA’s Executive Comittee. “What time do you want it to be?” reply his aides. And when he wants debate to come to an end, Grondona uses one of his favorite phrases: “You have to choose: either chicken with rice or rice with chicken.”

Now, for the first time in nearly three decades, Grondona will have a serious opponent in AFA’s 2007 elections: Raul Gamez, President of Velez Sarsfield, one of the last champions in Argentina. He said in the last months, that Grondona is untouchable, that he really is The Godfather. He denounced the last agreement of Grondona with a Russian company that will organize 24 friendly matches of the Argentine national team in the next four years – for 18 million dollars. The capitals are Russians, but the company is addressed in Zurich; and its name was not made public. No matter, everybody in the Argentine football said that at the moment, Grondona is invincible. Just in case, as it happened in the last World Cups, nearly one hundred football directors from Argentina received invitations from AFA to travel by free to Germany 2006. One club’s chairman resigned the invitation for ethical reasons. But he sent another director from his club. He was frightened that if his club was outside of “Don Julio’s Tour”, then the team could suffer that decision, without matches in TyC or without penalties in the field. 

Todo pasa

South America was the first Confederation to support Blatter’s nomination, when he was going to be elected as FIFA President in France in 1998. Blatter won after a vote that included alleged payments of bribes. Blatter welcomed Grondona’s support by naming him “Leader of the year” in the Versailles Palace. That night Grondona fell to a fountain with his new smoking. Grondona was also a key element in Blatter’s reelection in 2002. His friends use to tell that immediately after this last victory, Grondona ordered Blatter to fire Michel Zen-Ruffinen, the man who dared to denounce corruption within FIFA. Blatter thanks Grondona for his support. Don Julio controls key FIFA’s Committees.

Grondona knows the world of football very well. He almost played in River Plate’s First Division. He played and he founded Club Arsenal. He was President of Independiente and is the head of its national Federation. Few know it, but when in 1997 he was admitted in the AFA’s Executive Committee, Don Julio could not be incorporated right away. He had to wait until a two-month suspension for intimidating a referee while being President of Independiente was over. A decade before, when he was President of Arsenal, he had been removed from his position on four occasions. During two years and nine months. One of the reasons was that he intimidated and insulted referees.

Those who are close to him say that if Blatter leaves the FIFA, Grondona does not dream of replacing him. And it is true. His friends said that he declined to be FIFA’s President in 2002, when his name was mentioned as the best solution by both sides to put an end to the battle. But in the meantime, Grondona goes on, and in his golden ring it reads “todo pasa”: Everything goes by. Everything, it’s true, except him. There are those who say that power wears one out. But Grondona is among those who believe in what former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, famous for his alleged links to the mafia, once said: “Power wears people out. It is true, but it wears out those who do not make use of it”. And Grondona not only uses power. He abuses power as well.

“Es ist ganz klar, dass wir grünes Licht aufflackern lassen können. Es steht wirklich gut.”

Ich sage: “Grüezi Herr Klaus”, dann lassen Sie es mal schön flackern!

Der Boss vom Herrn Klaus, der Blatter Sepp aus Visp, erklärte übrigens kürzlich dem Sonntags-Blick, die Schweiz werde sich ganz gewiss für die WM qualifizieren:

“Ich würde die Schweizer Hotelzimmer für die WM in Südafrika schon heute buchen.”

Ich weiß nicht, ob Joseph Blatter genau wusste, mit wem er da das Glas erhob. Ich werde ihn mal fragen. Es muss ein spaßiger Abend gewesen sein, im Januar 2005 im China Club an der Uliza Krasina 21 in Moskau. Der China Club wirbt übrigens so:

The restaurant, decorated in Truggelmann style instantly became a symbol of classic luxury. And a place with a high concentration of enormous wealth and unlimited power. Deals worth millions were concluded there and destinies were ruled. The restaurant’s story would suffice for a novel, historical or culinary.

Blatter, Platini und Koloskow sind als Fifa-Funktionäre gewissermaßen Stammgäste in diesem Blog. Alimsan Tochtachunow, ehemals Kicker bei Pachtakor Taschkent und heute Präsident der Russian Soccer Foundation, habe ich bislang noch nicht erwähnt, obwohl er doch, nun ja, zu meinen Lieblingsmafiosi zählt. Er sieht gut erholt aus auf den Fotos der russischen Zeitung Kommersant. Auf dem Fahndungsfoto von Interpol, das ist eine jener blöden Behörden, mit denen Fußballfunktionäre nichts zu tun haben möchten, ist er nicht so gut getroffen. Aber das liegt vielleicht in der Natur der Sache:

Das FBI brachte Alik, wie Tochtachunow von seinen Freunden genannt wird, mit zahlreichen Verbechen in Verbindung – und mit strammen Syndikaten der Russenmafia. Nur ein kleiner Ausschnitt von mehreren Seiten Fahndungsmaterial:

Ein Europapokalspiel des FC Bayern München manipuliert? Die spanische Staatsanwaltschaft ermittelt. Gerade bekam ich einen Anruf eines Radiosenders, der aufgeregte Kollege wollte wissen, welches Interesse der FC Bayern an einem verschobenen Spiel gehabt haben könnte, die hätten doch genug Geld. Wahrheitsgemäß antwortete ich: “Ich weiß es nicht. Gar kein Interesse. So weit ich es verstehe, sind meist einzelne Spieler und/oder der Schiedsrichter an Spielmanipulationen beteiligt.” Die Antwort stellte den Anrufer nicht zufrieden. Er kam auch nicht damit klar, dass ich wenig aufgeregt reagierte.

Erstaunlicher Weise habe ich auf www.kicker.de bis jetzt keinen Hinweis auf die Geschichte gefunden, wogegen die Konkurrenz von www.sportbild.de schon titelt: “War Zenits Sieg über Bayern manipuliert?” Tja, das ist die Frage.

Der FC Bayern teilt dazu mit:

Der FC Bayern München nimmt zu Meldungen der spanischen Medien „El Pais“ und „ABC“ am Mittwoch, nach denen die dortige Justiz wegen Manipulations-Verdacht im Uefa-Cup ermittele, wie folgt Stellung: Dem FC Bayern München ist dieser Verdacht ebenso wenig bekannt wie der Münchner Staatsanwaltschaft. Wir werden versuchen, jegliche etwaige Information zu diesem Vorgang zu erhalten.

Die Süddeutsche Zeitung belässt es bislang wie alle von mir bisher gecheckten Online-Auftritte beim Bericht der Deutschen Presse-Agentur, in dem Spanien-Korrespondent Hubert Kahl u. a. schreibt:

Während das Gericht zu laufenden Ermittlungen keine Einzelheiten bekanntgeben durfte, schrieben die Blätter (El País und ABC), dass sich der Verdacht der spanischen Justiz auf abgehörte Telefongespräche von russischen Mafia-Bossen in Spanien stützt. Der in Spanien festgenommene Gennadi Petrow, der als der Chef einer der einflussreichsten Mafia-Clans in Russland gilt, soll nach Madrider Presseberichten in einem abgehörten Telefongespräch damit geprahlt haben, für das Weiterkommen der Zenit-Fußballer gesorgt zu haben. Im Mai war der FC Bayern gegen den russischen Spitzenclub durch ein 1:1 im Hin- und ein 0:4 im Rückspiel, der höchsten Münchner Niederlage im Europapokal seit 31Jahren, ausgeschieden. Er habe für den Erfolg des Außenseiters Zenit “50 Millionen” ausgegeben, sagte Petrow nach Angaben der Zeitungen. Die Währung habe er nicht genannt. Die spanische Justiz nahm diese Äußerungen ernst genug, um ein Ermittlungsverfahren einzuleiten. Der im Frühjahr auf Mallorca festgenommene Petrow steht im Verdacht, der Chef des mächtigen russischen Mafia-Clans “Tambowskaja” in St. Petersburg zu sein. Nach den Zeitungsberichten sollen Petrow und seine Gehilfen in drei abgehörten Telefonaten davon gesprochen haben, das Halbfinale manipuliert zu haben. Der ebenfalls inhaftierte Leonid Christoforow, der als die “rechte Hand” Petrows gilt, soll sogar getönt haben, das Resultat des Rückspiels (4:0 für Zenit) im Voraus gekannt zu haben. Der spanische Untersuchungsrichter Baltasar Garzón, der die Ermittlungen gegen die russischen Mafia-Größen leitet, unterrichtete laut El País die deutsche Staatsanwaltschaft von seinen Untersuchungen. Bei der Münchner Staatsanwaltschaft war davon nichts bekannt.

Über die Operation Troika, die u. a. zur Festnahme Petrows führte, schrieb der Guardian im Juni 2008:

Spanish police arrest Russian mafia suspects

A gaudy neo-classical mansion, Ferraris and Bentleys in the drive, a painting by Salvador Dalí on the wall and royalty for neighbours. Welcome to the world of Gennadios Petrov, the alleged Mr Big of the Russian mafia in Spain. Petrov is said to head the Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya gang from the sunny climes of Calvi, one of the most exclusive villages in Majorca. He counted among his neighbours Pilar de Borbón, the sister of King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Accustomed to handing out tips of €500 (£393) and not looking at the price tag when buying designer jackets, Petrov lived surrounded by tight security. But the peace at his €20m mansion was rudely interrupted when the Spanish police came knocking on Friday. In a major operation, codenamed Troika, 20 alleged members of the organised crime organisation said to have been led by Petrov were arrested in Majorca, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia and Madrid. Police seized 23 luxury cars including Bentleys and Ferraris and €200,000 in cash.

The Dalí painting, signed by the Surrealist master and dated 1949, was found at a luxury mansion in Valencia linked to Petrov. More than 100 bank accounts containing a reported €14m were also frozen. Spain’s leading anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzón, who tried to prosecute former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, charged Petrov and 17 others with a variety of offences including money-laundering, murder, extortion, drug dealing, illicit association, falsification of documents and tax fraud. They will appear before a maximum security court in Madrid today.

The gang, said to be one of the most brutal in Russia, allegedly set up a web of front companies in Spain to launder millions in illegal property deals gained from criminal activities in Russia and the former Soviet states. After the raids, which involved 300 police, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the interior minister, said: “This is the largest crackdown on organised crime in Europe.” The operation was carried out with the help of German, US and Russian police.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Russian mafia has gained ground in Spain, exploiting lax property laws and limited police resources to launder millions in property deals through bogus firms and into tax havens such as Gibraltar. Petrov, who is in his 50s, arrived in Spain in the early 90s, and allegedly used cash from the former KGB and communist party to buy a luxury hotel in Majorca. Operation Troika is the latest stage of an ongoing investigation into the Russian mafia in Spain, which began in 2005 with the arrest of 28 suspects. 

Kurze Pause, geht gleich weiter in diesem Theater.

Inzwischen hat auch der Gazprom-Verein Zenit eine Mitteilung veröffentlicht. Die Webseite funzt allerdings kaum, mehrfach taucht der Hinweis auf: Ansturm zu groß. Server ausgelastet.

Unabhängig von den Tricks der Wettmafia, die nur mit großem kriminalistischen Aufwand nachzuweisen sind, finde ich die verschiedenen statistischen Ansätze interessant, mit denen Hill und italienische Wissenschaftler anhand der Charakteristik von Fußballspielen Manipulationen aufspüren wollen. Dazu habe ich im Januar ein Stücklein für den Deutschlandfunk produziert, nichts besonderes, nur ein kleiner Überblick:

Um die Machenschaften der internationalen Wettmafia aufzudecken, ist vor allem kriminalistisches Knowhow gefragt. So befassen sich derzeit Spezialisten von Europol und Interpol mit 26 dubiosen Fußballspielen auf europäischer Ebene – darunter auch ein Qualifikationsspiel für die EM 2008. In einer anderen Sportart, dem von zahlreichen Wettaffären erschütterten Cricket, ist der ehemalige Scotland-Yard-Chef Lord Condon als Aufklärer eingesetzt. Mit Lord Condon kooperiert neuerdings auch das IOC.

Kriminalistisches Gespür beweisen einige Wissenschaftler, die sich mit Spielmanipulationen befassen. So entwickelten beispielsweise der Italiener Battista Severgnini und der Kanadier Declan Hill statistische Methoden, mit denen verschobene Spiele erfasst werden können. Mit dem gewonnenen Datenmaterial können Severgnini und Hill einen Manipulationsverdacht beschreiben.

Battista Severgnini ist Ökonom und derzeit an der Berliner Humboldt-Universität Assistent des amerikanischen Wirtschaftsprofessors Michael Burda, der zum Beraterkreis von Angela Merkel zählt. Severgnini hat mit einem Professor der Mailänder Bocconi-Universität sämtliche Spiele der italienischen Serie A seit 1990 analysiert. Aus dem Datenwust von Pässen, Schüssen, Laufwegen, Flanken, Eckbällen, Verwarnungen und Freistößen versuchten sie, einen Warn-Mechanismus zu generieren.

Eine Zauberformel gibt es natürlich nicht: Severgninis System kann nur Auffälligkeiten berechnen.

Und es schlägt bei allen Spielen Alarm, die Luciano Moggi, der Pate von Juventus Turin und Hauptfigur im italienischen Korruptionsskandal, in den vergangenen Jahren verschieben ließ. Es schlug noch bei Dutzenden anderer Spiele Alarm, die nicht geahndet wurden.

Severgnini sagt, seine Methode lasse sich auch auf die derzeit verdächtigen Europapokalspiele anwenden. Voraussetzung sei allerdings umfangreiches Datenmaterial zu allen beteiligten Mannschaften – und zwar über Jahre.

Declan Hill ist einen etwas anderen Weg gegangen. Hill, hauptberuflich Journalist, hat seine Doktorarbeit an der Universität Oxford geschrieben. Die Arbeit und ein populärer formuliertes Buch, werden derzeit von Anwälten geprüft und sollen in Kürze veröffentlicht werden, sagt Hill. Er hat seine Datenbasis aus insgesamt 137 Spielen in zahlreichen Ländern gewonnen, bei denen vor Gericht Manipulationen festgestellt wurden. Dazu führte er mit Beteiligten, vor allem auch mit Vertretern der asiatischen Wettmafia, rund 200 ausführliche Interviews.

Hill unterscheidet zwischen Mechanismen bei Spielabsprachen und Wettbetrug. Seine Analysen weisen auf teilweise beträchtliche Unterschiede im Spielverlauf hin. Der größte Unterschied besteht darin: Wurden von Teams und Offiziellen Absprachen getroffen, dann fallen die entscheidenden Tore bereits sehr früh – entgegen der landläufigen Meinung, derartige Spiele würden erst gegen Ende entschieden.

Hill sagt, nur schlecht manipulierte Spiele seien erkennbar, etwa durch dubiose Schiedsrichterentscheidungen. Auch hier scheint die alte Faustregel aus der Korruptionsbekämpfung zu gelten, wonach nur maximal fünf Prozent aller Korruptionsfälle öffentlich werden – mehr als 95 Prozent aber bleiben unerkannt.

Declan Hill hat zuletzt mehrfach ̦ffentlich behauptet, er habe in Asien mit einem Mafioso gesprochen, der den Ausgang eines Bundesligaspiels beeinflusst hat. Um welches Spiel es sich handelt, will Hill nicht sagen Рdieses Detail soll den Verkauf seines Buches bef̦rdern.

Das wohl berühmteste Fußballspiel mit deutscher Beteiligung, das auf perfide Art manipuliert wurde, hat Hill in seiner Analyse allerdings nicht erfasst. Denn zu dieser Partie liegt kein Gerichtsurteil vor: Bei der WM 1982 spielten Deutsche und Österreicher ein schmutziges Spiel, um beide in die Hauptrunde zu kommen und den Rivalen Algerien zu distanzieren. Diese Partie ging in die Fußballgeschichte ein – wahlweise als „Schmach”, „Schande” oder „Nichtangriffspakt” von Gijon.

Im Kern trifft Hills Analyse aber auch auf dieses Spiel zu: Denn das entscheidende Tor von Horst Hrubesch fiel in der Anfangsphase, nicht etwa gegen Ende.

Über die Zauberformel Severgninis hat bereits vor einem Jahr Damiano Valgolio, damals Praktikant in der Berliner Zeitung, berichtet. Vergangene Woche hat sich Christoph Biermann, einer der Autoren der heutigen Spiegel-Geschichte, ausführlich mit dem System Severgninis, also der Mathematik der Schiebung, befasst.

Nachtrag: Habe noch ein bisschen im Archiv gewütet, denn ich erinnerte mich daran, beim Achtelfinalspiel der WM 2006 zwischen Brasilien und Ghana, das laut Hill auch manipuliert worden sein soll, im Dortmunder Stadion gewesen zu sein. Mein aktueller Spielbericht begann damals so:

DORTMUND. Man sollte sich mal in die Lage von Ratomir Dujkovic versetzen. Da geht es gegen den fünfmaligen Weltmeister, doch Dujkovic, Trainer der famosen Ghanaer, muss seinen Kapitän Michael Essien ersetzen, jenen Mann, den sie in Frankreich einst Bison nannten, weil er regelmäßig das Mittelfeld durchpflügte. Da geht es also gegen Brasilien im Achtelfinale der Weltmeisterschaft, und ein slowakischer Schiedsrichter namens Lubos Michel entscheidet in nahezu jeder strittigen Szene gegen Ghana. Am Ende der ersten Halbzeit übersehen Michel und seine Kollegen am Spielfeldrand auch noch eine klare Abseitsstellung für Adriano – es steht 0:2 und das Spiel ist gelaufen. „Das Tor war illegal”, sagte Ratomir Duikovic und erkundigte sich gleich mal bei Herrn Michel, ob der sich nicht ein brasilianisches Leibchen überstreifen möchte.

„Ich habe ihn gefragt, ob er sich nicht ein gelbes Hemd anziehen will”, berichtete Dujkovic. Herr Michel fand das gar nicht lustig und schickte Herrn Dujkovic auf die Tribüne. Da saß er nun, der Serbe, und beobachtet in der zweiten Hälfte, wie Michel auch noch seinen besten Stürmer, Asamoah Gyan, vom Platz stellte. Dieser hatte sich einmal über einen Fehler von Michel geärgert, den Ball ins Aus gedroschen und dafür Gelb erhalten. Dann unterstellte ihm Michel eine Schwalbe, der Brasilianer Juan forderte vehement eine zweite Verwarnung, und Michel tat ihm den Gefallen. Gelb-Rot für Asamoah Gyan. Und Herr Dujkovic auf seinem Tribünenplatz wunderte sich noch mehr: „Die haben heute mit ein bisschen Hilfe gewonnen.”