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54 54 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2015 Sport FIFA SCANDAL Napout resigns as South America's football boss after arrest Blatter disputes Beckenbauer's World Cup 2006 claims Platini subjected to sham procedure - legal team FIFA vice president Juan Angel Napout has resigned as president of the South American football confederation (CONMEBOL), CONMEBOL said in a statement following his arrest in connection with the corruption investigations engulfing world football. The 57-year-old Paraguayan was arrested in Zurich last week on a U.S. warrant accusing him of ac- cepting bribes worth millions of dollars in connection with the sale of marketing rights to football tour- naments in Latin America. He is banned from all football ac- tivities. "With the resignation of Mr Juan Angel Napout as president, the congress was convened for the elec- tion of officers (president and vice- presidents) for 26 January 2016," CONMEBOL said in the statement cited by media. Uruguayan FA chief Wilmar Val- dez will take over as CONMEBOL president on an interim basis until January. Napout has agreed to be extra- dited to the United States. Juan Angel Napout SUSPENDED FIFA President Sepp Blatter refused to back up Franz Beckenbauer's accusation that 2006 German World Cup organ- isers had to pay world football's governing body a cash amount in order to release a bigger payment back to them, calling them absurd. Beckenbauer, who was the 2006 World Cup organising chief, has said a controversial 6.7 million euros (£4.8 million) payment to the football world governing body, currently under investigation by a German prosecutor, was made in order to release a payment of 170 million euros back to the organis- ers to help with preparations for the tournament. The affair has rocked German football, with Beckenbauer, an em- blematic sports figure in the coun- try and a former World Cup win- ning player and coach at the heart of the scandal. Blatter, in excerpts of an inter- view with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine released on Friday, said the German World Cup organisers should follow the paper trail to get to the bottom of this affair. "This is absurd," said Blatter, adding FIFA's 170 million euro contribution to the World Cup organisers was never tied to any conditions. "To pay money to get money? No. This does not exist at FIFA," said Blatter, who has been suspended as the federation is hit by a broader corruption scandal that has seen dozens of FIFA officials arrested. Der Spiegel said in October the 6.7 million euro payment was a return on a loan via FIFA to ex- Adidas chief Robert Louis-Dreyfus that was allegedly used in a votes- for-cash deal with FIFA voting members during the 2000 bidding campaign for the 2006 tourna- ment, which Germany won. Beckenbauer denies the existence of any votes-for-cash deal. The affair has led to the resigna- tion of German FA (DFB) Presi- dent Wolfgang Niersbach, who was a World Cup organising Vice President at the time and is now being investigated for tax evasion in relation to this payment. Niersbach, shortly before his res- ignation last month, confirmed in a press conference the existence of the payment but could not explain why it had been made. "There have to be documents what exactly this money is and if there are no documents at the DFB then one should go to FIFA and properly clear this up," Blatter said. Beckenbauer, who has admitted to the payment but has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and is not formally under investigation, has twice discussed the issue with the legal firm in charge of the DFB's own investigation. A contract between Beckenbauer and former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, now banned from football for life, surfaced last month that was signed four days before the 2000 vote to give Ger- many the competition. It offered a series of services, including friendly matches and coaching support to the head of CONCACAF, the governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, which Warner led from 1990 to 2011. "From today's point of view some of it may look a bit strange and maybe one would not do it like that again," Beckenbauer said. "But it was meant well." FIFA President Blatter and Beckenbauer President of the German 2006 World Cup bid FIFA'S Ethics Committee have subjected European football chief Michel Platini to a "sham procedure", the Frenchman's le- gal team said on Friday after he lost an appeal to have a provi- sional 90-day ban overturned. Reacting to comments in French newspaper L'Equipe by Ethics Committee spokesman Andreas Bantel, a statement from Platini's representatives said the remarks "constituted a patent violation of the presump- tion of innocence". "They demonstrate also that the Ethics Committee is pur- suing a political objective for whom contradictory arguments and the hearing that it fixed it- self for 18 December will mani- festly serve no purpose," added the statement. "Mr Platini, for whom the sanction already seems to have been fixed (decided) by the FIFA Ethics Committee before his explanations have been heard, strongly denounces these prac- tices which showcase the sham procedure of which he has been the object for weeks." The committee provisionally suspended Platini and outgo- ing FIFA president Sepp Blatter from the sport on Oct. 8, pend- ing a full investigation into their conduct. However, Bantel's comments suggest the UEFA president's hopes of being exonerated and therefore still being able to run for the top FIFA job in the Feb. 26 election are non-existent. "In this case the question of corruption is well founded," said Bantel. "And in supposing the corrup- tion argument is not accepted by (the) Judicial Chamber, many other questions have been raised about possible violations of the criminal code, such as conf lict of interest, disloyal management and falsification of accounts. "All this naturally suffices for the suspension of Blatter and Platini for several years. Platini certainly will be suspended for several years," added Bantel. "As for Blatter, now aged 79, there's no difference for him be- tween several years (suspension) and banishment for life." Platini, head of UEFA since 2002, was the favourite to re- place Blatter but has become mired in the biggest scandal to hit FIFA. The former France midfielder was barred for 90 days during an investigation centred on a two million Swiss francs (£1.29 million) payment from FIFA to Platini. He suffered another blow on Friday when the Court of Arbi- tration for Sport (CAS) turned down his appeal against the pro- visional ban, although the or- ganisation ordered FIFA not to extend it. Even a temporary lifting of the ban, that ends 52 days before the FIFA election, would have allowed Platini to attend yester- day's draw in Paris for the 2016 European Championship. That showpiece occasion would have given him the opportunity to promote his ambitions. A final decision by the Ethics Committee is expected by the end of this month. UEFA President Michel Platini speaks to the media as he leaves after a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)