Fifa faces investigation into Burma business deal

Fifa is the subject of an investigation by the Swiss state authorities over allegations that its financial dealings with Burma may have broken international sanctions.

The Myanmar Times, a newspaper in the pocket of Burma's junta, is said to have reported last December that the construction firm Max Myanmar has been contracted to build a stadium that Fifa funds will help to pay for.

Max Myanmar is headed by Zaw Zaw, the head of Burma's football federation, who is on the European Union sanctions list. Financial transactions with companies connected to Zaw Zaw would constitute a breach of those sanctions, possibly leading to a six-figure fine or custodial sentence.

Switzerland enforces EU sanctions through its State Secretariat of Economic Affairs [Seco], which is

seeking information from Fifa in connection with the reports. "We have requested a number of documents from Fifa about this," Thomas Graf, the deputy head of Seco's sanctions department said. "We are waiting for these documents and we will determine if there has been a violation of the sanctions on Myanmar [Burma] or not."

Fifa says it "did not infringe any corresponding regulations, whether from Switzerland or Fifa regulations". Still, the development may embarrass Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, who was the guest of Zaw Zaw and the junta during a visit last month. While there Blatter laid the foundation stone at the Rangoon national youth academy.

An article on Fifa's website referred to this as Myanmar's Goal IV project, indicating that its Goal project of 2001 and Goal II project of 2004 have been supplemented with two further Fifa-funded construction projects.

But although documents for projects I and II are on the Fifa website, it appears to have forgotten to make public details of the two more recent projects.

Sky Blue blues

Coventry City lost £12m in the first 19 months following their takeover by Sisu Capital in December 2007. Only an £8m cash injection prevented their going into administration last week. Group accounts are more than a month overdue and they are likely to paint a depressing picture when, two years ago – with average attendances 9% higher than today – the wages-to-turnover ratio was running in excess of 90%.

Sisu is considered a pariah by some fans but if the Sky Blues did slip into administration the picture would be bleaker still: what white-knight investor would seek to pick up a club whose only assets are the expensive player contracts? Critically, Coventry do not own their stadium and relegation this season or next would be as catastrophic as it has been for Plymouth Argyle.

But there may be some encouragement here. As they are the anchor tenants to the cash-cow £113m Ricoh Arena, the stadium's shareholders – Alan Higgs, Peter Davis, Marilyn Knatchbull-Hugessen and the local council – rely on the club's survival. This should give Coventry's board some leverage in negotiating the purchase of the stadium. With £38m of cuts to its budget from central government, the council may even be a distressed seller, although its deputy leader, George Duggins, told Digger: "Not so distressed a seller that we won't get proper value for the shares." All Sisu has to do is come up with the cash.
Clubs face hard times

Championship clubs are keeping an open mind on the true impact of the £23m slide in the value of their domestic broadcast deal until the Football League's international-rights negotiations are concluded. A fag-packet calculation suggests each second-tier club will lose £766,000 a year, every League One club £115,000 and each League Two club £76,666. However, in practice, what the clubs receive is unequal and the real numbers will only be known when the facility fees – payments for each on Sky – are calculated. And here is where the bun fight will be: the most telegenic clubs will attempt to claw back the losses in guaranteed income by raising the facility fees. A £23m reduction in income cannot come without rancour.
Questionable legacy

At the Sports Journalists' Association question time on Tuesday night London 2012's chief executive Paul Deighton, left, cited two pension funds' £871.5m deal to buy half of the Stratford City retail development as real evidence of the Games' legacy. Hmm. The overall housing, retail and business development achieved planning permission in 2004: long before the 2012 Olympics were awarded to London, and would have gone ahead irrespective of the bid decision in Singapore.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/07/fifa-investigation-burma-sanctions-eu