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Blatter And Deputies 'Paid Themselves Millions'

Sepp Blatter and two of his deputies awarded themselves pay rises and bonuses totalling £55m over five years, FIFA lawyers say.

World football's governing body says the contracted payments appear to break Swiss law, and added evidence will be given to American and Swiss federal prosecutors who are investigating corruption claims.

"The evidence appears to reveal a coordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totaling more than 79 million Swiss francs - in just the last five years," said Bill Burck of Quinn Emanuel, the US law firm retained by FIFA during the corruption crisis.

FIFA has revealed details of the contracts of Mr Blatter, former general secretary Jerome Valcke and ex-finance director Markus Kattner one day after Swiss police raided the organisation to seize evidence.

The raid included searches of the office of Mr Kattner, who was sacked last week.

Gianni Infantino.
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The Swiss attorney general, Michael Lauber, opened criminal proceedings against Mr Blatter last September, and against Mr Valcke in March.

Both men are suspected of criminal mismanagement of FIFA money.

They both deny wrongdoing, but were banned for six and 12 years respectively by FIFA's ethics committee.

No additional criminal proceedings have been opened against Mr Kattner.

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"Additionally, FIFA will refer the matter of these contracts and payments to the Ethics Committee for its review," FIFA said in a statement.

The organisation has been trying to redeem its name ever since a raid on a Zurich hotel last year that saw the arrest of seven FIFA officials at the centre of a US investigation.

Around 40 individuals and two companies face charges in the US over more than $200m (£137.4m) in bribes paid for television and marketing contracts.

In a separate probe, Swiss police have been investigating the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, which went to Russia and Qatar respectively.

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French prosecutors indicated this week they could also look into the 2022 bidding process.

Gianni Infantino became the new FIFA president in February in a bid to stabilise the organisation, and vowed to lead world football into a new era of "transparency" and "honesty".

But he has already faced scrutiny himself.

On Friday FIFA denied German media reports that a formal investigation had been launched into Infantino.

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