Richard Weber led investigations into FIFA corruption case and recalls turning point
• Photo: Tony Dias/Movephoto
It was 2015 when the world of football was confronted with a large-scale corruption case involving FIFA and other continental federations. Leading the investigations was Richard Weber, director of the IRS, a federal agency integrated into the United States Department of the Treasury, who was at Thinking Football 2023 yesterday. Record spoke with one of the people responsible for the process, who highlighted the change initiated with this dossier.
“The FIFA case was a game changer, but it hasn’t wiped out all criminal activity in the industry. There remain challenges in ensuring that organizations and everyone involved are doing the right thing. And doing the right thing doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t. are committing criminal activity, it also means following the code of ethics, among other things. The case had an impact, organizations such as SIGA [Sports Integrity Global Alliance] they are doing fantastic things, but there is a lot to do”, he said, before dissecting the action in this case.
“FIFA was probably one of the biggest cases we worked on. The reason it was so significant was because it was a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional investigation. It had an impact on the entire industry. It had a significant impact on the people involved, on the fans. It is important to be able to hold those who commit crimes accountable”, he said, noting, however, that he was no longer speaking on behalf of the agency, but in a personal capacity.
One of the great challenges of this whole process was to guide efforts with several “foreign authorities”. “It was important to make sure there were no leaks. It was challenging,” he concluded.
Integrity as a keyword
Speaking at a conference within the Forum for Integrity in Football, Richard Weber highlighted precisely the issue of integrity as crucial to the success of professional sport. “Integrity is critical to all sports,” he began by saying, continuing: “Integrity in all parts of the game, in terms of financial integrity, sports integrity, consumer integrity. Integrity that covers all parts of the sport.”
It was 2015 when the world of football was confronted with a large-scale corruption case involving FIFA and other continental federations. Leading the investigation was Richard…
By Pedro Morais
2023-09-08 04:23:28
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