Trending News|July 15, 2015 09:42 EDT
FIFA 2015 Scandal News: Declines Request for Blatter to Attend U.S. Hearing
FIFA President Sepp Blatter declined an invitation by a U.S. Senate panel to answer questions at a hearing on Wednesday about the corruption charges that FIFA executives are facing, the Associated Press reports.
"Sen. Moran's office reached out to FIFA to explore the possibility of having Mr. Blatter testify but the organization declined," Garrette Turner, spokesman for Senator Jerry Moran said. Moran is the Republican chairman of the consumer protection subcommittee, which is holding the meeting.
The AP report points out that last week, Blatter told a German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that "he won't take any travel risks until everything has been cleared up." Blatter was not in attendance at the FIFA Women's World Cup final in Vancouver, Canada. The 79-year-old did, however, express his intentions to be present at the July draw for the qualifying games of the 2018 World Cup.
According to the report, the list of names who will be testifying include U.S. Soccer federation (USSF) CEO and Secretary General Dan Flynn, Michael Hershman, a private investigator who served on FIFA's independent governance committee from 2011-2013, Sunjeev Bery, an official of Amnesty International, and Andrew Jennings, a British investigative journalist who played a key role in exposing corrupt practices in FIFA.
The AP report adds that the subcommittee will also be digging into what role and responsibilities corporate sponsors have in FIFA.
Five sports media and promotion executives were part of the May indictments concerning schemes involving $150 million in bribes. As the report notes, the indictment included a reference to an unnamed sportswear company, widely identified as Nike Inc. The references were about payments made in marketing fees to the Brazilian national soccer federation.
The Oregon-based company has said that there is no allegation in the indictment that it engaged in criminal conduct.
"This hearing on the recent FIFA scandals will begin the discussion about our country's own participation in the organization, ways the United States and our allies can work to reform FIFA, and how we can restore integrity to the game so many Americans and citizens of the world enjoy," Moran said in a statement last week.