International Sport and Leisure

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The International Sport and Leisure (ISL) was one of Horst Dassler founded and headquartered in Switzerland marketing company , which in May 2001 bankruptcy went. She was active in the sports rights trade and was FIFA's main business partner for football broadcasting rights . In the subsequent criminal proceedings it was established by a criminal court that the ISL had paid a total of 138 million Swiss francs in bribes to various sports officials between 1989 and 1999 .

History of the company

The ISL was founded in 1982 by the then Adidas co-owner Horst Dassler together with the advertising agency Dentsū in Lucerne . The predecessor company was the Sarnen- based Rofa, in which Franz Beckenbauer and Robert Schwan were also involved. The largest shareholder with 90 percent was International Sports Media & Marketing AG (ISMM), which was known as Sporis until 2000 and was owned by the Dassler family. Dentsū held the remaining 10 percent.

The ISL acquired event rights from international sports associations and passed them on to sponsors, television broadcasters and licensees. She received her first assignment from FIFA for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Within a few years it became the largest company in the world for the marketing of international sports events. In the 1990s, ISL's customer list included FIFA, the International Olympic Committee (IOK), the World Athletics Federations ( IAAF ), swimming ( Fina ) and the tennis organization ATP .

In 1996, together with the Kirch Group, ISL secured worldwide television rights to the soccer world championships in 2002 and 2006 in South Korea, Japan and Germany for a total of 2.8 billion Swiss francs.

The ISL / ISMM holding made huge losses in 2000. On May 21, 2001, she was forced to file for bankruptcy. The creditors asserted a loss of 4 billion francs, of which the liquidator recognized one billion francs.

Criminal proceedings against former managers

In 2007, the Zug public prosecutor's office raised the charge against the former vice-president of ISL and five managers that facts such as embezzlement, fraud, fraudulent bankruptcy, damage to creditors through asset reduction and the fraudulent use of false certification had been met. The total offense amounts to over 100 million francs. In March 2008, a trial began before the criminal court of the canton of Zug . It was about bribe payments to sports officials, including the broadcast rights for the soccer World Cup in 2002 and 2006 . Vice-President Jean-Marie Weber remained silent during the trial and was fined with two other defendants, the other three managers were acquitted.

Criminal proceedings against unknown persons for disloyal management

Another investigation by the Zug public prosecutor in this context against FIFA officials who had remained anonymous was closed in June 2010 against payment of CHF 5.5 million. In November 2010, further allegations of corruption were raised against three members of the FIFA Executive Committee : Ricardo Teixeira , Nicolás Leoz and Issa Hayatou . They are said to have received bribes from the ISL for years. The dismissal order, which became known in July 2012 against the opposition of two FIFA officials, who went to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court for this, shows that FIFA President Joseph Blatter must have known about the bribe payments. According to this, Ricardo Teixeira accepted payments of over 12 million francs, the former FIFA President João Havelange received at least 1.5 million Swiss francs.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carlos Hanimann: Cash and no receipt. WOZ Die Wochenzeitung, January 22, 2009, accessed on November 23, 2011 .
  2. ^ A b David Garcia: Dirt on the ball: The business of FIFA. Le Monde diplomatique, June 11, 2010, accessed April 13, 2011 (from the French by Jakob Horst).
  3. ↑ a b c Jens Weinreich: Bribe scandal worth millions. Fifa officials buy themselves free. Spiegel Online, June 25, 2010, accessed March 10, 2011 .
  4. ↑ The total marketing. Zeit, July 12, 1996, accessed October 31, 2015 .
  5. ↑ The company. Berliner Zeitung, April 11, 2001, accessed on October 31, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Facts about ISL and ISMM. (No longer available online.) NZZ, April 24, 2001, archived from the original on October 19, 2014 ; accessed on October 31, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Gunhild Freese: Football World Cup 1998: Leo Kirch has turned the ARD and ZDF off the field. Zeit, July 12, 1996, accessed October 31, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Michael Wulzinger: Easy Rider in pinstripes. Spiegel, April 9, 2001, accessed November 23, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Andreas Flütsch: Dirty Fifa laundry spread in court. Tages Anzeiger, March 7, 2008, archived from the original on October 5, 2012 ; Retrieved December 8, 2010 .
  10. ^ Indictment. Public Prosecutor of the Canton of Zug, February 19, 2007, accessed December 8, 2010 .
  11. ↑ Jens Weinreich: Corruption in Football. New allegations of bribery against Fifa officials. In: SPIEGEL. November 29, 2010, accessed April 13, 2011 .
  12. ^ Jean François Tanda: Payments in the millions to functionaries - Blatter knew it. In: Handelszeitung. July 11, 2012, accessed October 31, 2015 .

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