Speaker 1: Let me explain what you'll be hearing in today's episode.
Speaker 1: FIFA was founded to spread the game of soccer around
Speaker 1: the world. It's made up of representatives from member nations
Speaker 1: whose primary responsibility is to organize World Cup tournaments. So
Speaker 1: you might ask, how did this noble nonprofit turn into
Speaker 1: a money making machine that invited so much corruption. Well,
Speaker 1: color TV and colorful commercials played a big role in
Speaker 1: that money part, But the corruption is a more complicated story,
Speaker 1: and as always, it starts at the top. I'm Connor Powell.
Speaker 1: This is episode six, the Era of Gold. At first glance,
Speaker 1: the piece of paper found by investigators in Rio de
Speaker 1: Jannarro appeared to be nothing more than a letter of
Speaker 1: reference for a friend. The handwritten note, dated October was
Speaker 1: tatterned and worn. Its composition wasn't particularly articulate nor eloquent,
Speaker 1: but the gist of what it said was pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1: Castor Day and Drag is my friend and as a
Speaker 1: loyal family man who loves sports. Let me repeat that
Speaker 1: to you because it's important to our story. Castor Day
Speaker 1: and Drag is my friend and as a loyal family
Speaker 1: man who loves sports. The letter concluded by saying and
Speaker 1: I authorized Castor Day and Drag to use this statement
Speaker 1: as he deems appropriate. To investigators who found the letter
Speaker 1: in seven years after it was written. The intent of
Speaker 1: the author's statement was crystal clear. I'm important, don't mess
Speaker 1: with my friend. The implications of this simple message were
Speaker 1: far reaching, not only in Brazil but around the world.
Speaker 1: You see, Castor wasn't just a humble family man who
Speaker 1: likes sports. In the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, he
Speaker 1: was one of Brazil's most famous people, with an electric
Speaker 1: smile and a flashy style that resembled a television game
Speaker 1: show host. Castor was known as the King of Carnival,
Speaker 1: the Pulse Satian, gyrating and seductive Brazilian festival held every
Speaker 1: year before the start of the Christian period of Lent.
Speaker 1: Castor had a samba school that had won five Carnival
Speaker 1: titles between ninety nine and that's a really big deal
Speaker 1: in Brazil. He also owned one of Rio's top soccer teams,
Speaker 1: Banou Atletica, and he ran the incredibly popular and illegal
Speaker 1: lottery game known in Brazil as Jogo Debishu. Castor was
Speaker 1: a businessman, a bookie, and a mobster. It was estimated
Speaker 1: his gambling operation brought in more than a billion dollars
Speaker 1: a year. He used his control of the illegal lottery
Speaker 1: to launder massive amounts of cash for criminal gangs, not
Speaker 1: only in Brazil, but also outside of the country, including
Speaker 1: Colombia's notorious Cali Cartel, the Sicilian Mafia, and some shady
Speaker 1: Israeli gangsters you've never heard of. You see, Castor was
Speaker 1: known as one of South America's top mobsters and most
Speaker 1: dangerous men, and investigators were closing in on them. So
Speaker 1: in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported on April that
Speaker 1: Brazilian investigators had found the seven year old letter of recommendation.
Speaker 1: Eyebrows went up in Brazil and they went up around
Speaker 1: the soccer world when it was announced that the person
Speaker 1: acting as Caster's moral guaranteur it was none other than
Speaker 1: FIFA's president jo Hablanche. To explain the note in how
Speaker 1: Jao Habalang came to be tied up with a gangster
Speaker 1: of Caster's reputation, you need to go back to a
Speaker 1: time when FIFA put the non in nonprofit. The V
Speaker 1: four financial report hand delivered to FIFA's executive committee. It
Speaker 1: was much like the soccer organization's outgoing president, Stanley Rolse organized,
Speaker 1: detailed and brutally transparent, it was also somewhat unimpressive. The
Speaker 1: last report produced by the Stadgi Englishman before relinquishing the
Speaker 1: FIFA presidency declared the nineteen seventy four World Cup the
Speaker 1: most successful tournament ever and said that ticket sales from
Speaker 1: the World Cup games made up the overwhelming majority of
Speaker 1: FIFA's revenues, amounting to a nineteen million dollar profit for
Speaker 1: the organization, meaning despite its solid success, FIFA had yet
Speaker 1: to really tap the massive potential from television and other
Speaker 1: marketing opportunities, and since FIFA's only revenue producing event was
Speaker 1: the World Cup, the entire nineteen million dollar profit FIFA
Speaker 1: made that year would be needed to prepare for the
Speaker 1: next World Cup and to sustain FIFA's non World Cup
Speaker 1: year operations. FIVA was attention rich. It's games were watched
Speaker 1: all around the globe, but it was cash poor, with
Speaker 1: very little money in the bank. Today FIFA is rolling
Speaker 1: in money. I want you to listen to how former
Speaker 1: presidents set Ladder described FIFA's financial health when defending its
Speaker 1: nonprofit status back in two thousand and twelve. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: nonprofit organization and we have to remain a nonprofit organism,
Speaker 1: a nonprofit with over a billion dollars in the bank. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the this is a deserve. Thirty eight years after
Speaker 1: its nineteen million dollar profit, FIFA had a reserve of
Speaker 1: one billion dollars, not a profit, a reserve. That's money
Speaker 1: just sitting in the bank. And that is an incredible
Speaker 1: financial transformation and it's a large lead the result of
Speaker 1: Havlang and his vision for FIFA. Listen to soccer historians,
Speaker 1: to horse Field explain football as we know it now
Speaker 1: is because of Yah Havalange. He understood that there was
Speaker 1: a first for football and a real desire to watch
Speaker 1: it and to watch the World Cup. You know, he
Speaker 1: saw the earning potential, he saw the corporate potential. You know,
Speaker 1: he saw the product that FIFA walls. One positive thing
Speaker 1: that could be said about the nineteen seventy four financial report,
Speaker 1: it was also probably the last one that could truly
Speaker 1: be believed. President Havalanche had a slightly different approach the bookkeeping,
Speaker 1: preferring a more opaque style. During the sixteen years that
Speaker 1: Havlang was president of the Brazilian Sports Federation known as CBD,
Speaker 1: nearly seven million dollars went missing. When Brazil's own corrupt
Speaker 1: military dictators discovered this gaping hole in ninety, they were irate,
Speaker 1: which is ironic because at the same time, in the
Speaker 1: mid nineteen seventies, the ruling junta were stripping Brazil of
Speaker 1: money and resources at every turn. When Brazil's military leaders
Speaker 1: wanted to arrest and charge Havlang with fraud and embezzlement,
Speaker 1: Hovlanch always knew whose hands the shaken, whose hands to Greece.
Speaker 1: He's an incredibly skilled and talented politician. If he had
Speaker 1: not gone into spault, then I'm sure he would have
Speaker 1: made an excellent politician. Instead, Brazil's military leaders removed Havalanche
Speaker 1: from running the CBD, which he had continued to do
Speaker 1: even after becoming FIFA's president in nineteen seventy four. Left
Speaker 1: with only one job, Havalanch said his sights on turning
Speaker 1: the World Cup into a commercial success. FIFA and or
Speaker 1: Havalanch would become mind blowingly wealthy, and as FIFA began
Speaker 1: to succeed, he made sure a sizeable portion of its
Speaker 1: exploding profits ended up his and his friends pockets. Even
Speaker 1: after the long flight, FIFA's new president looked impeccable as
Speaker 1: he walked outside. Tall, muscular and with the broad shoulders
Speaker 1: of a swimmer. He wore finely tailored suit and tie.
Speaker 1: That was his dress code. Now you've noticed, I've often
Speaker 1: mentioned how FIFA officials dressed their fondness for smart, expensive suits,
Speaker 1: and that's because Havalanche believed the president should always look
Speaker 1: the part. Really, anyone in power should look impressive. FIFA
Speaker 1: might be full of crooks, but they were always well
Speaker 1: dressed crooks. When Havalans arrived in Zurich shortly after his
Speaker 1: ninety four election, the Brazilian was ready to get to work.
Speaker 1: After all, he had made a lot of promises to
Speaker 1: get elected, from increasing the number of teams in the
Speaker 1: World Cup to four, to creating a youth tournament to
Speaker 1: funding development programs in the Alpen world. Now it was
Speaker 1: time to make good. However, standing there alone with his
Speaker 1: luggage in his hand outside the Zerich airport on his
Speaker 1: first trip to FIFA's headquarters since being elected president, Havalanche
Speaker 1: looked more like a confused and lost traveler than a president.
Speaker 1: Where was FIFA's General secretary, Helmut Kaiser or any one
Speaker 1: or the other half dozen or so FIFA employees agreed him.
Speaker 1: Havalanch fumed as he looked at his watch, wondering if
Speaker 1: anyone was on their way. Presidents don't take taxis, Presidents
Speaker 1: are met. To Havalanche, there was no more important office
Speaker 1: in the world than his. He sees it as being
Speaker 1: more powerful as the United Nations. He sees himself on
Speaker 1: a path with you know, political presidents, politically as kings
Speaker 1: and queens of monarchas you know, he sees himself and
Speaker 1: he sees FIFA as this absolute monolith of an organization.
Speaker 1: And it does become that Havalanche was frustrated, now late
Speaker 1: and anxious to begin his work. Havlanche demanded from then
Speaker 1: on someone from FIFA's staff would always be ready to
Speaker 1: meet him at the airport, to act as his chauffeur
Speaker 1: on a moment's notice. Years later, this would become an
Speaker 1: official job responsibility of FIFA's General Secretary. It was the
Speaker 1: first of many changes Havalanche would implement, but certainly not
Speaker 1: the last. Havalanch would usher in a new way of
Speaker 1: doing business at FIFA, so says historian John Sugden, who
Speaker 1: interviewed Havalanche for his book FIFA and the contest for
Speaker 1: World football who rules the people's game. Havalanche's style was
Speaker 1: a messy mix of personal, political, and corporate interests. I
Speaker 1: remember interviewing Havalanche along with my Collegallan Tomlinson in Cairo,
Speaker 1: and I said to him, Mr Havlanch, what you consider
Speaker 1: to be your greatest achievements And he said, when I
Speaker 1: took over with FIFA, this is when st run the
Speaker 1: organization from basically his back garden she had in Swiss
Speaker 1: cottage in London. He said, I checked into the cash
Speaker 1: box and he used that word, that phrase. I looked
Speaker 1: at the cash box and there were twenty five dollars
Speaker 1: in the cash box. And he said, now about to
Speaker 1: leave FIFA, I can tell you that are twenty five
Speaker 1: million dollars in that cash box. And he saw that
Speaker 1: as his crowning achievements as a registered nonprofit making money,
Speaker 1: that is, the pursuit of profit above all ounts. This
Speaker 1: wasn't something that previous FIVA leaders really worried about. For
Speaker 1: the old guard, it was beneath him. From Jewels Room
Speaker 1: May to Stanley Rouse. They saw the organizing of the
Speaker 1: World Cup as their primary responsibility, not the profiting from it.
Speaker 1: When Avalans took over, aided and batted by dassela that
Speaker 1: was superseded by a kind of entrepreneurial lath. The main
Speaker 1: now was for if even to make money. You just
Speaker 1: heard John Sugden referred to Horse Dassler, who would become
Speaker 1: Havalanja's right hand man. Dassler new international sports were changing.
Speaker 1: The German entrepreneur and son of the founder of the
Speaker 1: sports apparel company Adidas, just wasn't sure yet how to
Speaker 1: capitalize on the opportunities from television and corporate sponsorships. For months,
Speaker 1: the aggressive and often manipulative businessman, who was known to
Speaker 1: come to meetings bearing gifts like watches, had begged FIFA's
Speaker 1: administrator Stanley Rouse and its no nonsense General secretary Helmet
Speaker 1: Kaiser to agree to a partnership. For months, they ignored
Speaker 1: Dassler's overtures. Dazzler's proposal to commercialize soccer was out of
Speaker 1: step with Rouse's view of the game, and Rouse shunned
Speaker 1: the growing commercial agenda. But now sitting across the table
Speaker 1: from FIFA's new savvy president, Dassler saw a man he
Speaker 1: could do business with. Chall Havevalanch had the smell of
Speaker 1: dirty money and assorted election victory earlier in the year
Speaker 1: only confirmed it for the Adidas executive. It was Havalanche's
Speaker 1: first dinner as president, and it was an elaborate affair
Speaker 1: who's who of soccer officials and international businessmen. Dass learned
Speaker 1: Havalanche each had something the other wanted. Havalanch held the
Speaker 1: rain to the biggest sporting events in the world, but
Speaker 1: needed money to make good on the promises that got
Speaker 1: him elected. Dassler had the money to invest, but he
Speaker 1: needed access to FIFA's devoted fan base to make the
Speaker 1: investment really pay off. They were both on the prow
Speaker 1: that night, and they both got lucky. Several days later, Havalanche, Dassler,
Speaker 1: and Patrick Nally, an English sports promoter and marketing executive,
Speaker 1: met in private. Between the three of them sort of
Speaker 1: have all all bases covered in terms of promotion, cockets
Speaker 1: in kit and the keys essentially to FIFA's contracts. To
Speaker 1: these men, soccer wasn't a sport, it wasn't a game.
Speaker 1: Soccer was a product. The World Cup the ultimate product,
Speaker 1: and over dinner, the threesome hatch the plan that would
Speaker 1: remake world soccer in trigger a global sports sponsorship boom.
Speaker 1: The Golden era gave way to an era of gold,
Speaker 1: and that John Sugton said had consequences. Once the goal
Speaker 1: started to pour in, there were legions more opportunities for corruption,
Speaker 1: which is exactly what happened. The aluminum suitcase clanged against
Speaker 1: the limousine's bumper. The chauffeur reached down with both hands
Speaker 1: and heaved it into the vehicle's trunk. FIFA's president had
Speaker 1: set out earlier in the day with an empty container,
Speaker 1: but after only an hour of shopping, Jo Hovlang his
Speaker 1: suitcase weighed a ton. Remember how Havalanche had arrived in
Speaker 1: Zurich with suitcases full of immaculate suits. Now he was
Speaker 1: leaving with bags literally stuffed with gold. The trip to
Speaker 1: Zerik's gold dealers was part of a regular habit for
Speaker 1: the Brazilian. He was known to spend upwards of thirty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars on gold, bricks and jewelry to bring home
Speaker 1: with him to Rio, Havalanche strolled through customs with his
Speaker 1: diplomatic passport. Why did he have a diplomatic passport, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I would assume in soccer man Brazil,
Speaker 1: the head of FIFA is given a diplomatic passport, and
Speaker 1: no one in Brazil was going to stop a man
Speaker 1: as powerful as Havalanche, and no one was going to
Speaker 1: ask him where the loot came from. And like its president,
Speaker 1: FIVA was now a wash in money, having signs an
Speaker 1: eight million dollar worldwide deal with Coca Cola. This first
Speaker 1: ever exclusive global sports agreement provided Havalanche with the resources
Speaker 1: he needed to expand the World Cup and pay his debts.
Speaker 1: And so the number of teams increased from sixteen to
Speaker 1: twenty four by two and teams from Africa, Asia and
Speaker 1: the South Pacific got the automatic spots they had demanded.
Speaker 1: He's the one who created the World Cup as we
Speaker 1: know it now as this global super event. He expands
Speaker 1: the game and expands what FIFA can do. He expands
Speaker 1: FIFA's income streams almost exponentially. Who's at the center of
Speaker 1: this nascent sports sponsorship empire? Along with Havalanche, Patrick Nalley
Speaker 1: and Horsed Assler, Together they created what has become the
Speaker 1: ubiquitous sports marketing model and attracted dozens of multinational conglomerates
Speaker 1: to fork over millions of dollars in exchange for exclusive
Speaker 1: sponsorship opportunities by the logos of Coca Cola and Adidas
Speaker 1: a door in nearly every inch of the World Cup games.
Speaker 1: But even though the nineteen seventy eight tournament in Argentina
Speaker 1: is considered one of the biggest embarrassments in FIFA's history,
Speaker 1: as you'll hear later in the series, the controversies didn't
Speaker 1: stop global brands from signing up to sponsor future tournaments.
Speaker 1: By two Cannon, Fujifilm, and Gillette would all sign sponsorship
Speaker 1: deals with FIFA, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into
Speaker 1: the sport. You know, you have these blue chip companies
Speaker 1: sort of knocking FIFA's door down to be a part
Speaker 1: of the World Cup, which never happened under Stanley Rouse
Speaker 1: and would never have happened under Stanley Rouse because that
Speaker 1: was everything that he thought football shouldn't be. Whereas Havalanche
Speaker 1: saw that that was everything that football was going to
Speaker 1: be and he needed to be at the forefront of
Speaker 1: it rather than trying to catch up with it, and
Speaker 1: he was. He was excellent at it. He's a very
Speaker 1: mafia godfather type figure. But you can't you have to
Speaker 1: acknowledge his skill and fall side and perception of what
Speaker 1: was happening at the time. The bills and receipts sitting
Speaker 1: in front of FIFA's General secretary came from every corner
Speaker 1: of the globe. They were piling up, and they were
Speaker 1: telling a story. Helmett Kaiser didn't want to hear. It
Speaker 1: seemed every day a new purchase or expense or contract,
Speaker 1: some dubious in nature, crossed Kaiser's desk. He knew FIVA's
Speaker 1: Brazilian president was a profligate spender. Indeed, Avalanche was generous,
Speaker 1: especially with other people's money, especially with FIFA's money. But
Speaker 1: the receipts for things like designers Swiss watches and thousand
Speaker 1: dollar dinners at Zurich Savoy Hotel were no laughing matter.
Speaker 1: The bills were adding up, the Coca cola money was
Speaker 1: running out. Kaiser had been at FIFA for twenty years
Speaker 1: and he had never seen anything like havalanch Is spending.
Speaker 1: Kaiser was a simple and dedicated administrator, a serious guy
Speaker 1: whose focus was always on the good of the game.
Speaker 1: Historians to horse Field said this about him, Halmat Kaiser
Speaker 1: was a wonderful, wonderful General Secretary at FIFA, very open,
Speaker 1: very honest. Kaiser was getting really concerned about the way
Speaker 1: Havalanche did business throughout his reign. FIFA's president like to
Speaker 1: brag he never took a salary, which is true, but
Speaker 1: Havalanche knew his way around FIFA's expense account. In the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, his personal expenses were north of a quarter
Speaker 1: of a million dollars. By the time he left office,
Speaker 1: in Hovlanch was billing FIFA a million dollars a year
Speaker 1: in personal expenses, and Havalanch was negotiating contracts on his
Speaker 1: own without telling Kaiser or the executive Committee. One deal
Speaker 1: to make commemorative coins for the World Cup in Spain
Speaker 1: was particularly problematic. FIFA already had an agreement in place
Speaker 1: with a company to produce its swag, but Havlanch hired
Speaker 1: a different company run by his friend to make the coins,
Speaker 1: and the chronicism would only get worse. For the same
Speaker 1: World Cup, FIFA had hired the European company Albinga to
Speaker 1: provide insurance for the event, but Havalanch demanded the subcontract
Speaker 1: of their business to Atlantica Boa Vista, a Brazilian insurance
Speaker 1: company that. Get this, Havlanch was a director of and
Speaker 1: had a direct financial interest in. Havalanch was lining his
Speaker 1: own pockets with FIFA's money. Then there were the rumors
Speaker 1: that sports marketing duo Peter Nalley and Horse Dassler had
Speaker 1: paid Havalanche a million dollars as part of the World
Speaker 1: Cup bidding process. It became such an open secret in
Speaker 1: European soccer. Kaiser was forced to confront Havalanche. FIFA's president
Speaker 1: erupted an anger at the accusation. Turns out it was
Speaker 1: all true. By the end of FIFA's president and its
Speaker 1: general secretary were barely speaking. Kaiser's days at FIFA were
Speaker 1: numbered because he doesn't bend to Havalanges. Will set Blatcher
Speaker 1: is brought in and set Black to replaces, and Havlane
Speaker 1: needed someone he could trust, someone who viewed FIFA the
Speaker 1: same way he did, as an opportunity to make themselves
Speaker 1: and their friends rich, really really rich. And set Bladder
Speaker 1: he fit the bill, set Black to just becomes this
Speaker 1: protege who works on the Avalanche, watches, listens, is a
Speaker 1: part of as an accomplice too. You know all the
Speaker 1: things that happened. Losing his job as FIFA's General secretary
Speaker 1: was only the first insult Kaiser would suffer at the
Speaker 1: hands of sept bladder. Months later, Bladder would marry Kaiser's daughter.
Speaker 1: It was said Kaiser refused to attend the wedding and
Speaker 1: sat at home alone and cried. With Kaiser out and
Speaker 1: Bladder in, FIFA was quickly becoming corruption incorporated. Like a
Speaker 1: thief running from the scene of a crime, Diego Maradona
Speaker 1: sprinted from the goal to the touch line. He waived
Speaker 1: his teammates over to join him and celebrate. The furious
Speaker 1: English players raced to confront the referee, who hesitated before
Speaker 1: deciding to award the goal to Argentina. So what the
Speaker 1: hell was happening? Moments before, Maradona, the five ft five
Speaker 1: inch attacking midfielder, leapt up into the air in front
Speaker 1: of a hundred and fifteen thousand sun scorched fans and
Speaker 1: scored one of the World Cup's most infamous goals. Video
Speaker 1: and photographic evidence would later show that Maradona's clinched hand,
Speaker 1: not his head, punched the ball into the goal. That's
Speaker 1: totally illegal. England's team was right to be furious, but
Speaker 1: it didn't matter. Maradona's goal in the World Cup quarterfinals
Speaker 1: knocked England out of the tournament. After the game, the
Speaker 1: banded himself joked that the goal was scored a little
Speaker 1: bit by the head of Maradona and a little bit
Speaker 1: by the hand of God. It would come to be
Speaker 1: known as the hand of God goal. The German sports
Speaker 1: press would call it the scandal of the century. The
Speaker 1: Germans were wrong. It wouldn't even be soccer's most scandalous
Speaker 1: moment of the tournament. By the corruption within FIFA had metastasized.
Speaker 1: Old soccer had seen nothing like it before. The men
Speaker 1: ensuedes with their envelopes full of cash. They were now
Speaker 1: the lords of soccer. To hide and to help their
Speaker 1: criminal efforts, Havalanche, Bladder, and Dazzler created the International Sports
Speaker 1: and Leisure Company. For two decades, I s L was
Speaker 1: granted the exclusive contract to market the World Cup. I
Speaker 1: s L also worked with an array of other sports organizations,
Speaker 1: from professional tennis to the Olympics Committee, where how Lunch
Speaker 1: was also a member until he was banned for accepting
Speaker 1: illegal gifts and payments. However, it was FIFA's contracts that
Speaker 1: were the driver of I s l's wealth and power. Dassler,
Speaker 1: who had had a falling out with his old partner
Speaker 1: Peter Nally, now split the take fifty fifty with the
Speaker 1: Japanese advertising agency Densue. Global brands like Cannon, Coca Cola,
Speaker 1: Adidas paid millions to I s L to use the
Speaker 1: World Cup logo and their commercials, while TV networks coughed
Speaker 1: up even larger sums Dicel to broadcast World Cup matches.
Speaker 1: The World Cup, where Argentina want its second trophy, was
Speaker 1: watched by more than ten billion eyeballs. Through I s L.
Speaker 1: Dassler was able to purchase the marketing rights for a
Speaker 1: mere thirty two million dollars and then sold those rights
Speaker 1: for a remarkable one hundred and sixty million dollars profit.
Speaker 1: With more cash for football, also came widespread reports of
Speaker 1: financial wrongdoing by its top officials, including Havalanche. All that
Speaker 1: money could easily have gone directly to FIFA, but instead
Speaker 1: went to I s L. Why would FIFA sell the
Speaker 1: rights to its premier events significantly below market value and
Speaker 1: forfeit more than a hundred million dollars in revenue because
Speaker 1: I s L would then make off the book payments
Speaker 1: kickbacks to FIFA executives and other key members of the
Speaker 1: global soccer community for more than two decades until it
Speaker 1: collapsed and went bankrupt in two thousand and one. I
Speaker 1: s L operated as a personal slush fund for Havalange
Speaker 1: and FIFA, who rewarded friends and members of the FIFA
Speaker 1: family around the globe. At the same time, Havalanche continued
Speaker 1: his insurance scamp with his own company, Atlantica Bovista, once
Speaker 1: again winning contracts to ensure the six World Cup for
Speaker 1: millions of dollars. By the nineteen nineties, Havalanche a turn
Speaker 1: FEVA from a stage and racially segregated sports federation into
Speaker 1: a truly global conglomerate, but one created in his own image,
Speaker 1: where bribery, secret dealmaking, cronyism, and nepotism were institutionalized. Oh
Speaker 1: and so back to that tatterned and worn letter of
Speaker 1: reference you heard about at the start of the episode,
Speaker 1: the one from Jaohavlans to the mobster caster day Androgy.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the only incriminating piece of evidence investigators found
Speaker 1: that day. In and the same collection of papers, police
Speaker 1: had found a list of people Castor had bribed, and
Speaker 1: on the long list of names was FIFA's president. Next
Speaker 1: to Havalanche is inch was written seventeen thousand, six hundred
Speaker 1: and forty dollars for a v I P box at
Speaker 1: a carnival event. By Havalanche's standards, it was a pretty
Speaker 1: tiny amount, but it showed in black and white that
Speaker 1: FIVA's president had a personal and financial relationship with one
Speaker 1: of South America's most notorious gangsters. Havalanch was in Europe
Speaker 1: at the time it was tipped off to the impending scandal.
Speaker 1: Instead of confronting the accusations that he and Castor were friends,
Speaker 1: Pavlanch used his position in FIFA to distract and find
Speaker 1: new friends, announcing that it was time to expand the
Speaker 1: World Cup tournament once again, this time from twenty four
Speaker 1: to thirty two teams. With Havalanche facing re election in
Speaker 1: a few months time and with European members signaling they
Speaker 1: wanted a different president, the promise to expand the pool
Speaker 1: of teams playing in the next World Cup not only
Speaker 1: buried the cast scandal, but also guaranteed Hovlanche would get
Speaker 1: another four yr term Ruben Williams. When the World Cup
Speaker 1: landed in America and what had long been a waste
Speaker 1: land for soccer, it arrived with a pizzazz that only
Speaker 1: the combination of Las Vegas and Hollywood could deliver with
Speaker 1: a giant blue Jeopardy like screen. The tournament's draw was
Speaker 1: a star studded event, packed with entertainment legends like Barry Manilow,
Speaker 1: Julio Iglasis, Fade Dunaway, and Dick Clark. Since it was
Speaker 1: the nineties, they were dressed in baggy clothes with absurdly
Speaker 1: large shoulder pads. On the stage, comedian Robin Williams yuked
Speaker 1: it up with set bladder. Mr Blaow, It's so nice
Speaker 1: to meet you after feeling it for so many years.
Speaker 1: Nice time, Thank you very much. Thinking look the world's
Speaker 1: largest keynote board. Now at the time to pull the
Speaker 1: blue ball. The room was packed with some of the
Speaker 1: most famous Americans in the world, who, like most ordinary Americans,
Speaker 1: knew little to nothing about soccer or the World Cup.
Speaker 1: The one soccer player Americans did know was conspicuously absent
Speaker 1: from the stage. His real name is Edson Arantis dona Cemento.
Speaker 1: The billions of soccer fans, he has known as Pile
Speaker 1: Number ten, the most celebrated player in the history of
Speaker 1: the game. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, the Brazilian
Speaker 1: superstar Pale dominated the world Cup, winning three titles Tony
Speaker 1: Field and then Haley came to American Could this be
Speaker 1: another one? Hale Mark and dazzled sports fans playing for
Speaker 1: the New York Cosmos part of the now defunct North
Speaker 1: American Soccer Ley Away a wicked Shockley was soccer for
Speaker 1: most Americans, so it was only fitting he's starting countless
Speaker 1: commercials in the run up to the nine World Cup.
Speaker 1: Joined Master carp and the legendary Peal in celebrating the
Speaker 1: world's most spectacular sporting events the nineteen ninety four World Cup.
Speaker 1: Pale had also been instrumental and helping his fellow Brazilian
Speaker 1: shall Havevlanche win the FIFA presidency in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1: So where was he? Why wasn't he part of the
Speaker 1: nine World Cup draw in Las Vegas months earlier? Pale,
Speaker 1: who was also an executive with a sports marketing company
Speaker 1: in his native Brazil, said in an interview that a
Speaker 1: member of the Brazilian Football Confederation had demanded a one
Speaker 1: million dollar bribe if Pale wanted to get the broadcast
Speaker 1: rights to the Brazilian Championship precursor to the World Cup.
Speaker 1: When Paley refused to pay the contract, went to another firm.
Speaker 1: The guy asking for the bribe, according to Pale, was
Speaker 1: a Cardo to Shara, and who is Ricardo to Shara
Speaker 1: none other than Jail Hablanche's son in law. In a
Speaker 1: sport full of crooks and criminals, to Shara, was one
Speaker 1: of the worst or best. Taking full advantage of his
Speaker 1: family connection, he collected millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.
Speaker 1: Most of the payments came from I L and Jose
Speaker 1: Avola's marketing firm, Traffic Group. Once was investigation found I
Speaker 1: s L paid Havalanche and his son in law more
Speaker 1: than thirteen million dollars in the nineties alone. The famed
Speaker 1: Scottish investigative journalist Andrew Jennings of the BBC, who had
Speaker 1: for decades hounded FIFA officials about allegations of corruption, estimated
Speaker 1: I s L paid much much much more. The internal
Speaker 1: I s O documents we've obtained show secret payments around
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars. We understand most of the bribes
Speaker 1: went to a handful of FIFA bosses. Pelee had called
Speaker 1: out Havalanch and his cronies, so Havlange caught out Pelee
Speaker 1: the most well known soccer player in America and the world.
Speaker 1: From FIFA's premier pre World Cup event set, Platter delicately
Speaker 1: plays the gold FIFA Lifetime Service Medal around Jal Havalanch's neck.
Speaker 1: Side by side, the two men smiled and laughed as
Speaker 1: they stood together on the stage of FIFA's two thousand
Speaker 1: and six World Congress in Munich, Germany. It was nearly
Speaker 1: a decade after Havalanche had stepped down and Bladder assumed
Speaker 1: the presidency, and the crowd of soccer officials cheered the
Speaker 1: now honorary president. Havalanche's autocratic and corrupt rain had officially ended,
Speaker 1: but in FIFA's world, he was still the godfather of
Speaker 1: the organization. Even in retirement, he lorded over the sport
Speaker 1: it It was a role he was happy to talk
Speaker 1: and brag about. Hovlanch liked to remind journalists he had
Speaker 1: been the head of FIFA for more than eight thousand
Speaker 1: seven days, and yes, he actually counted out the days.
Speaker 1: He talked about going to Russia twice at the invitation
Speaker 1: of then President Boris Yelsen, and to Italy where he
Speaker 1: met Pope John Paul the second three times. He always
Speaker 1: liked to point out and that he was always welcomed
Speaker 1: in Saudi Arabia by King Fod himself. Havalanche loved to
Speaker 1: punctuate his stories by saying, do you think the head
Speaker 1: of state would spare that much time for just anyone?
Speaker 1: That's respect They've got their power. I've got mine, the
Speaker 1: power of football, which is the greatest power there is.
Speaker 1: They all bow at the feet of the FIFA president
Speaker 1: because that's where the power is. Everybody wants to be
Speaker 1: a pot of the World Cup. And with that great power,
Speaker 1: Stu Horsfield explains, comes big trouble. Once you are deferent to,
Speaker 1: you know, a leader or a president of a sporting organization,
Speaker 1: then you just have absolute power. Book Obviously there comes
Speaker 1: absolute corruption and absolute problems. What Hoblange never mentioned were
Speaker 1: the sordid collection of criminals, dictators and mobsters he liked
Speaker 1: to pole around with, and shortly after he received that
Speaker 1: Lifetime Achievement award from step Ladder, his luck ran out.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and ten, just days before FIFA was
Speaker 1: set to vote on the locations of the two thousand
Speaker 1: and eighteen and two thousand and twenty two World Cups,
Speaker 1: the votes that led to the FBI investigation the BBC's
Speaker 1: Andrew Jennings, as part of his ongoing investigation of FIFA,
Speaker 1: revealed a list of bribes paid to soccer officials via
Speaker 1: the sports marketing firm I s L. It's a secret
Speaker 1: document which some people of FIFA hoped could be get
Speaker 1: buried forever. Line by line, it details one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy five secret payments totaling tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: This is real money, massive kickbacks on world up contracts.
Speaker 1: The first details of I s l's massive bribery scheme
Speaker 1: had emerged when six of its managers were taking the
Speaker 1: court in two thousand and eight. Jennings eventually got his
Speaker 1: hands on the court documents, which showed a trail of payoffs,
Speaker 1: although I have to point out they weren't considered criminal
Speaker 1: acts in Switzerland at the time. One of the many
Speaker 1: payments on jennings list was a one and a half
Speaker 1: million dollar payment in to FIFA president Joo Havalanche. Step
Speaker 1: Platter had approved it, but Bladder escaped punishment. Later, an
Speaker 1: investigation by FIFA Zone Ethics Committee chairman Judge Hans Yacom
Speaker 1: Eckert ruled in two thousand and thirteen that Flatter didn't
Speaker 1: break in the ethics rules by approving the payment, but
Speaker 1: Judge Eckert blasted Havalanche, who at this point was only
Speaker 1: a liability to bladder in FIFA, saying the former president's
Speaker 1: conduct in conjunction to the I s L scandal had
Speaker 1: been morally and ethically reproachable. He ruled FIFA for more
Speaker 1: than two decades, but Jow Avalanche's era at football's governing
Speaker 1: body has ended in controversy. The Brazilians resigned from his
Speaker 1: position as honorary president after being named in a report
Speaker 1: as having received bribes. Although he'd been appointed honorary president
Speaker 1: for life, Havalanch had to resign the title in two
Speaker 1: thousand and thirteen in response to Judge Eckert's decision. For decades,
Speaker 1: Havalanch had commanded unprecedented power and respect on the world stage,
Speaker 1: but when he died in August of two thousand and sixteen,
Speaker 1: the most quoted person about Hovlanch's life and career was
Speaker 1: the man who did the most to uncover his corruption,
Speaker 1: investigative journalist Andrew Jennings. Here's Jennings speaking to Sky News
Speaker 1: and what he says, I think sums up Havalanche's legacy
Speaker 1: as good as anything I've heard. Well, it was a
Speaker 1: mixture of a shote politician and also he was a
Speaker 1: very hardline mobster. Unless keep that word in mind, he
Speaker 1: wasn't anything but Brazilian mobster who arrived at a week
Speaker 1: FIFA in and did what he wants You. Now, you
Speaker 1: could argue FIFA went from stag and pour to bombastic enrich,
Speaker 1: but you cannot and should not ignore the direct link
Speaker 1: between Stanley Rouse and Jauhavalanche. Colonialism and racism are the
Speaker 1: seeds from which FIFA's corruption and criminality grew, taking advantage
Speaker 1: of the powerless to enrich the powerful, which is absolutely
Speaker 1: the opposite of what FIFA is supposed to stand for.
Speaker 1: In the next few episodes, you'll hear how the Lords
Speaker 1: of Soccer abused their positions to prop up and even
Speaker 1: promote violent right wing dictators in Chile and Argentina, all
Speaker 1: in the name of soccer. The Lords of Soccer al
Speaker 1: FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media
Speaker 1: production in conjunction with I Heart Radio. The series was
Speaker 1: written and executive produced by Gary Scott and me Connor Powell.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Giselle Rossi for helping me with the
Speaker 1: trickiest of the Brazilian names. If I screwed up, it's
Speaker 1: on me, not her Logan he Tell and Katie mcmurran
Speaker 1: provided the sound design with assistance from j C. Swaddock
Speaker 1: and Jake Blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate producer
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor. Our fact checker
Speaker 1: is Alexa O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray, who produced
Speaker 1: the series for I Heart Radio. If you have any
Speaker 1: comments or questions, please reach out. You can find us
Speaker 1: on Twitter. I'm at Connor M. Powell and Gary is
Speaker 1: at Gary Robert Scott and if you have any stories
Speaker 1: about FIFA, let us know. If you like what you hear,
Speaker 1: please give us a shout out at the hashtag Lords
Speaker 1: of Soccer