ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Supreme Court has just ruled against Fifa in the case of Brazilian footballer Matuzalem, Forbes is saying the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should be worried about Fifa, and the Zurich-based football group is about to publish the measures it envisages to fight corruption. Few would accuse Fifa, the world football federation, of leading a quiet life, but this is a particularly busy news week for the group.
Matuzalem was ordered to pay $15.8 million to his former club, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Fifa ruled that if he fell behind on his payments he would be banned from the sport. But the high court ruled that this was taking things too far. SI/AP notes that this is a rare victory in the five-year battle between the player and his former club. “A CAS (Lausanne-based sports arbitration court) panel ordered the eight-figure compensation after Matuzalem broke his Shakhtar contract in July 2007 to join Zaragoza, increasing the amount previously awarded by Fifa. That CAS decision in May 2009 was hailed as a victory for clubs and contractual stability against the growing trend of player power.”
Meanwhile, Forbes writes, all is not as smooth as it might be in Brazil, Matuzalem’s home, with the 2014 World Cup coming up. Fifa has been showing its muscle there, too, and, writes Forbes, it appears to be reminding the country that “Fifa ultimately calls the shots and when Brazil signed on for the event they agreed to a governance structure that makes the local organizing committee ‘subject to the supervision and control of Fifa, which has the last word on all matters relevant to the 2014 Fifa World Cup. The decisions of Fifa are final.’”
Fifa will be in sports headlines Friday with the long-awaited proposal on how Fifa corruption and reform, by a team led by Mark Pieth. The former UN investigator was hired by Fifa President Seth Blatter in November 2011 to draw up the proposals based on his research into Fifa’s past problems. AP reports that while Blatter appears to be backing the report, Pieth warns the proposals will be “tough” on Fifa.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Rudolf Elmer, ex-Bank Julius Baer manager who brought charges against his former employer for meancing him, dropped them Thursday 17 November when he appeared in court to appeal his earlier sentencing on a number of charges. A Zurich court ruled against his appeal but this was later overturned by the Swiss federal high court.
ATS Swiss news agency says he would not say if he was offered money by his ex-employer to drop the charges, and that he continued to say the bank had menaced him.
He was given a suspended sentence in January 2011 for threats and theft related to banking data he stole several years ago. He appealed the fines and suspended sentence he was given, and the Swiss federal court ordered the Zurich court to accept his appeal. Today, in court, AST reports, he became bogged down in contradictory statements about emails and faxes related to the theft.
Shortly after being released in January he was re-arrested on charges of breaking Switzerland’s bank secrecy laws, related to sharing data with WikiLeaks. The arrest followed an appearance in public with Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, to talk about sharing the documents.
Elmer still faces these charges.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal Tribunal has ordered a new trial for Abba Abacha, son of former Nigerian General Sani Abacha, who ruled the country for five years in the 1990s. He was suspected of stealing more than $2 billion and after his death his sons managed the money.
Abba Abacha was given a two-year suspended sentence in June 2010 by a Geneva court and his assets confiscated, under Switzerland’s programme covering stolen potentate funds. Nigeria had asked the Swiss government for judicial assistance in 1999 to recover the money.
The Swiss high court has ordered the new trial because Abacha was refused a visa and therefore could not attend the earlier trial in Geneva.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss federal high court ruled Monday that Romanian football player Adrian Mutu must pay his former club Chelsea €17.2 million for testing positive for cocaine in 2004. The court upheld a ruling by Cas, the Court of Arbitration for Sports, which is based in Lausanne. Cas had in its turn upheld a decision by Fifa. The amount was determined by the value of the time remaining on Mutu’s contract with the team, which fired him after the drug finding.
Mutu now plays for Italian club Fiorentina. He has been banned by the Italian National Olympic Committee for failing two drug tests this year, reports AFP.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Some CHF8 million in Swiss bank accounts must be released to the family of former Congo (Zaire) leader Mobutu Sese Seko, the Swiss penal court in Bellinzona, Ticino has ruled. The accounts were ordered to be frozen by the Swiss government and on request from the new government of the DR Congo after Mobutu’s death in 1997, the only money from illegal sources that could be traced. Mobutu, who ruled as a dictator for 32 years, was famous for his expensive lifestyle, which contrasted sharply with the extreme poverty of his country.
Micheline Calmy-Rey, who was then president of Switzerland, met with DR Congo leader Joseph Kabila in July 2007 and asked him to apply for the return of the money before the statute of limitations ran out, but Kabila was reported at the time to be disappointed at the size of the amount and action was not taken immediately.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s efforts to ban smoking face another political fight, with opponents to the canton’s pending legislation to ban smoking getting the necessary 7,000 signatures to force a referendum.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal high court has ruled that posters of Muslims prostrate in front of the Swiss federal palace, with the slogan “use your heads” is not racist. The court argued, with one judge noting reservations, that the posters do not fulfill legal requirements for racial discrimination.
Lausanne, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – The Swiss federal high court will review Monday 27 April charges of racism brought against the country’s right-wing UDC (People’s Party) political party for posters is distributed in canton Valais in 2007. The posters show prostate Muslims at the Swis Parliament building, shown from behind, with the slogan “use your heads, vote UDC.”
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Swiss mother of a two-year-old child who returned to Zurich on vacation in January 2008, then refused to retun to the US, has been told by the Swiss high court that she must respect the decision of a US court and return the child to the United States.
