Jack named down under

The Age article, which carried the headline ’World Cup money trail: lobbyists to make millions’, alleged that the FFA will spend $64 million (Aus$11.37 million) ’one-quarter of the taxpayer-funded bid’ on fees and bonuses to two controversial European lobbyists, Peter Hargitay and Fedor Radmann.

The FFA also allegedly failed to disclose a fund of $36.6 million (Aus$6.5 million) in taxpayers’ money set aside for distribution to football bodies in Africa, Asia and Oceania.

The FFA confirmed that Trinidad and Tobago has already benefitted from such a ’grant’.

Ben Buckley, CEO of the Australian football body, admitted that the FFA funded the Trinidad and Tobago national under-20 team’s trip to Cyprus in September 2009.

The Cyprus tour was part of the local team’s warm-up for the 2009 World Youth Cup in Egypt.

’As a developed nation within football, FFA has a responsibility to promote football and social development amongst less developed nations,’ stated Buckley, in a letter to the Age.

’Commitment to furthering international relations and football and social development is also a critical requirement within the bidding process. The funding of the Trinidad and Tobago U20 national team to attend a training camp in Cyprus with the Australian U20 team falls into this category.’

Buckley’s assertion that Australia funded Trinidad and Tobago’s pre-World Youth Cup training camp has raised eyebrows from Ministry of Sport officials.

The Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago paid $150,000 to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) last year after a request ’to assist the body in pre-World Cup expenses’.

The well-placed source, who spoke under condition of anonymity, revealed that, as per usual, the TTFF did not give a breakdown regarding how the State funds would be spent, nor did they provide receipts after the fact.

Warner, the present Minister of Works, has held the post of ’Special Advisor’ to the TTFF for over a decade and is influential in most financial matters involving the football body.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Cyprus tour, according to the Age, was brokered by Hargitay, a controversial Hungarian businessman who was twice acquitted for cocaine trafficking in Jamaica and Miami. He spent seven months in a Miami cell.

Hargitay’s role also allegedly extends to arranging meetings between overseas football officials and FFA chairman Frank Lowy and Australian politicians. Former Australia prime minister Kevin Rudd is believed to have met Warner in Trinidad and Tobago last November during the Commonwealth Summit.

Buckley defended Hargitay’s FFA role by insisting that Australia’s World Cup bid required ’the input and expertise of international consultants with specific experience in the area of bidding for major football events’.

Several partners of FIFA executive committee members received a gift of a Paspaley pearl necklace valued at $14,000 (Aus$2,500) from the FFA. The FIFA bigwigs also received pearl cufflinks.

There is speculation in Australia as to whether such gifts flaunt FIFA’s rules regarding the bidding process.

FIFA’s rule of conducts declares that bidding associations should refrain from providing to any representative of FIFA ’any monetary gift’, ’any kind of personal advantage that could give even the impression of exerting influence, or conflict of interest, either directly or indirectly, in connection with the bidding process, such as at the beginning of a collaboration, except for occasional gifts that are generally regarded as having symbolic or incidental value and that exclude any influence on a decision in relation to the bidding process’ and ’any benefit, opportunity, promise, remuneration or service to any of such individuals, in connection with the bidding process’.

Buckley denied any wrongdoing.

Warner has been at the centre of a controversy over his decision to remain a member of the FIFA executive committee along with his Cabinet post with the support of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Up to press time, Warner had not responded to an e-mailed request from the Express for information regarding the national youth team’s trip to Cyprus in 2009 and a detailed list of how State funds provided for the tour were used. A call to his mobile phone went straight to voice mail.

Secret millions grease World Cup bid
By: NICK MCKENZIE AND RICHARD BAKER (Sydney Morning Herald)

Two controversial European lobbyists hired to help bring the football World Cup to Australia stand to receive up to $11.37 million in fees and bonuses - one-quarter of the taxpayer-funded bid - according to secret Football Federation Australia files.

The files include a spreadsheet that suggests the federal government was not told specific details about how taxpayers' money was to be spent on the lobbyists and grants to overseas football bodies headed by powerful FIFA officials.

An investigation into Australia's World Cup bid can also reveal how the FFA:

Bought Paspaley pearl necklaces for the wives of many of the 24 FIFA executive committee members who in December will decide which countries will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Pearl cufflinks were also handed out, taking the total value of the gifts to an estimated $50,000.

Offered an all-expenses paid trip to the South American FIFA executive committee member Rafael Salguero and his wife to Australia this year to mark his birthday.

Paid for a Caribbean football team linked to the FIFA vice-president Jack Warner to travel to Cyprus last year.

An FFA document contains two budget balance sheets outlining how the $45.6 million World Cup bid government grant is to be spent.

One balance sheet is for the FFA only and is headed ''bid budget management reporting''. The other is for the government and is less detailed and titled ''bid budget government reporting''.

The spreadsheets from mid-2009 suggest the FFA chose not to disclose to the government specific details of the payment structure for its two consultants, Peter Hargitay and Fedor Radmann.

The FFA said its accounting practices were exemplary and independently audited.

''The FFA is completely transparent in its dealings with government and has provided all information regarding the bidding process requested by government,'' said the FFA chief executive, Ben Buckley, who also declined to reveal publicly what Mr Hargitay and Mr Radmann were being paid.

However, confidential documents show the pair - who have been hired to direct Australia's lobbying of FIFA officials - stand to make $11.37 million if Australia wins the right to host the 2022 World Cup. Australia this month withdrew its bid for the 2018 cup.

Mr Hargitay is being paid $1.35 million by the FFA and has a success fee of $2.54 million. Mr Radmann's work for the Australian bid, which the FFA has tried to keep confidential, will earn him up to $3.49 million through a German consulting firm. He is also entitled to a success fee of $3.99 million.

As part of a separate contract, the FFA is paying Mr Radmann's business partner Andreas Abold an additional $3 million for World Cup "bid book production and bid advice''. It is unclear if Mr Abold will also receive some of Mr Radmann's fees.

The mid-2009 spreadsheet also suggests the government was not told details about plans to give $6.5 million in taxpayer funds to football bodies in Africa, Asia and Oceania. The document says the FFA's bid strategy will give large grants to "international football development''.

The government was told by the FFA that $11.37 million was going to ''consultants/agencies''. But the FFA prepared a more detailed spreadsheet for its own executives, specifically outlining how this figure would be divided into fees and bonuses for Mr Hargitay and Mr Radmann's international ''advocacy'' campaign.

Mr Buckley said: ''Consistent with standard management practice, FFA maintains a more comprehensive breakdown of expenditure and forecasts for day-to-day internal management purposes and accountability.''

The necklaces and cufflinks were given at a dinner in 2008 for FIFA officials at the home of the FFA chairman, Frank Lowy, after Australia had announced its World Cup intentions but before formal bidding had begun.

Mr Buckley said: ''It is a widely accepted, common practice, among governments, many business and sporting organisations to provide symbolic gifts, to visiting international delegations.''

FIFA allows "occasional gifts'' of ''symbolic or incidental value''.

It is believed the FFA funded the Trinidad and Tobago under-20 team's travel to Cyprus at the request of Mr Hargitay, who is close to the Caribbean football chief and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.

In several FFA documents Mr Hargitay refers to his strong ties to "Jack''. Mr Warner has been repeatedly accused of using FIFA status to enrich himself and his family. After an investigation in 2006 FIFA ordered him to repay $US1 million his family earned through the improper sale of World Cup tickets.

Last October Mr Warner returned a $435 luxury handbag - one of 24 given to the wives of FIFA executive committee members - from the English bid team, after media reports in Britain.

FFA documents make it clear that Mr Radmann and Mr Hargitay are managing the international "strategy" on behalf of the Australian bid team. They boast ties to some of football's most powerful men, including Mr Warner, the former German player Franz Beckenbauer and the FIFA president, Sepp Blatter.

Mr Radmann and Mr Hargitay have colourful histories. Mr Radmann, who has worked as an aide to Beckenbauer, has been implicated in:

  A scheme in 2000 to allegedly offer financial inducements to key FIFA executive committee officials to get them to back Germany's bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

 Conflict of interest scandals in 2003 that forced him to stand down from Germany's cup organising committee.

It is understood Australian bid officials sought to minimise any publicity about Mr Radmann's involvement in the bid.

Mr Hargitay's past includes being acquitted twice for cocaine trafficking in the 1990s and his alleged link to a securities fraud in Hungary, according to US court documents from 1997.

Mr Hargitay also boasts about daily meetings in South Africa with the Asian Football Confederation boss, Mohammad bin Hamman.

Documents detail Mr Hargitay's role arranging meetings between overseas football officials and Mr Lowy and Australian politicians. The former prime minister Kevin Rudd met Mr Warner in his Trinidad and Tobago home in November.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Ageing, the agency that provided the World Cup grant, said yesterday that the FFA briefed it regularly on its spending.

Asked about differing bid balance sheets, the spokeswoman said: ''The detailed internal accounting systems of the FFA are a matter for them.''

She said the department was aware of the backgrounds of Mr Hargitay and Mr Radmann. It also had no evidence of any breaches of the public service guidelines that cover the FFA's consultants.

All FFA bid team employees and lobbyists must comply with Australia's Public Service code of conduct and act in an honest and ethical manner. The spokeswoman said: ''The FFA has assured the[ department] taskforce that this provision is being adhered to. If evidence contrary to this was provided it would be thoroughly investigated as would any alleged breach of the funding agreement.''