13 Jul 2012

World Cup kickbacks emerge in court document

10:32 am on 13 July 2012

Documents filed by Swiss prosecutors show that the ex-president of football's world governing body FIFA, Joao Havelange, and his former son-in-law, took multi-million dollar bribes on World Cup deals.

FIFA's been forced to release a Swiss court dossier that details how Havelange received more than $1.25 million from the now-defunct marketing agency ISL, and that Ricardo Texeira, also the ex-boss of Brazilian football, received the equivalent of almost $16.5 million.

An American lawyer who set up an organisation called Change FIFA, David Larkin, believes attention should now turn to the current president Sepp Blatter.

Larkin says the document shows that FIFA knew about the bribes and if Blatter knew that the bribery was going on, then he's part of the problem.

Blatter's used his official Twitter page to say he's pleased with the release of the information and he's happy it shows he hasn't taken money.

And FIFA says it will investigate allegations from the former Southampton defender Claus Lundekvam, that he was involved in spot fixing.

The Norwegian played for the English team between 1996 and 2008... Southampton are back in the Premier League this season.