The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) on August 27 sought the referral to trial of four individuals, including Mohammed Bin Hammam, former head of the Asian Football Confederation and a central figure in the Qatari bid for the World Cup, and Reynald Temarii, former vice-president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).
According to the requisitions known to AFP, the first, who has been the subject of an international arrest warrant since 2023, is charged with bribery; the second, with bribery as the corrupted party.
The case begins in 2010. While he was to participate in the votes that would decide the candidate countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Mr. Temarii, representing Oceania, was suspended for one year by FIFA for violating the ethics code.
Under FIFA’s statutes, if Mr. Temarii appeals, no OFC replacement can vote on December 2. If, on the contrary, he accepts, the OFC can replace him. Several sources close to the case have denounced, at the time and still today, ‘a form of blackmail’ by FIFA.
Mr. Temarii initially accepted his sanction, but he appealed on the eve of the vote. Why?
“Well-Meaning Benefactor”
For the PNF, the Qatari Mohammed Bin Hammam pushed Mr. Temarii to challenge his sanction, in order to ensure that the OFC could not vote for Australia or the United States, as Oceania had announced.
A week before the vote, Mr. Temarii and his partner were invited to Kuala Lumpur by Mr. Bin Hammam. The Qatari reportedly had ‘a keen awareness of the stakes’, according to the PNF. On site, he ‘offered the assistance of his lawyers or the coverage of their legal fees’.
After Qatar was designated as host country for the World Cup, Bin Hammam and Temarii exchanged emails of support, the public prosecutor notes.
Early 2011, transfers exceeding 300,000 euros (about 35.8 million CFP francs), via two companies, were made by Bin Hammam, according to the indictment. ‘By accepting’ the money, Temarii ‘necessarily mixed’ his appeal ‘with the action undertaken fraudulently by his opportunist benefactor to distort the voting process’, the indictment states.
Temarii’s lawyer did not respond to AFP.
Bin Hammam could not be reached. The businessman was banned for life from football bodies following accusations of corruption and conflicts of interest.
Lawyer and Expert
Two other individuals face possible trial: Géraldine Lesieur, Temarii’s former lawyer, and Jean-Charles Brisard, a consultant and former husband of Ms. Lesieur.
The PNF suspects Ms. Lesieur of having exercised ‘pressure’ on her client to appeal. These prosecutions constitute ‘a serious affront to the legal profession’, said AFP to Géraldine Lesieur’s lawyer, Pascal Garbarini. His client had merely ‘advised Mr. Temarii to appeal’, while Mr. Temarii ‘did not know the FIFA motivations for sanctioning him’, he noted.
The PNF relies in particular on an email sent to Mr. Bin Hammam on November 30, 2010, in which the lawyer writes: ‘Reynald Temarii had decided yesterday to abandon. I asked him to defer his decision for 24 hours (…)’.
During those 24 hours, Jean-Charles Brisard, presented to Mr. Temarii as a renowned expert, is accused of sending him a note with a ‘deliberately false content to dramatize the situation’.
‘Brisard is accused of telling Mr. Temarii that renouncing his right to appeal would put him in a difficult position in the event of criminal proceedings, which is obviously true,’ argued his lawyer, Julia Minkowski, to AFP. ‘Nothing in the famous note can be equated with fraudulent maneuvers,’ she insisted.
An examining judge must now decide on a possible trial.
For Anticor, the civil party, this hearing is ‘essential’. ‘Their seniority does not in any way mitigate their gravity’, insisted the anti-corruption association, noting the ‘tentacular influence’ of international sports bodies.
Investigations continue into another aspect, concerning a lunch at the Élysée in November 2010 with, among others, former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former UEFA head Michel Platini.
