Football
ESPN staff 9y

Michel d'Hooghe being treated 'like a murderer' in FIFA investigation

FIFA executive committee member Michel d'Hooghe, who is being investigated by ethics chief Michael Garcia following his probe into World Cup bidding, has told Inside World Football he is being "considered like a murderer."

Last week, the Press Association reported that three executive committee members -- D'Hooghe, Angel Maria Villar Llona, of Spain and Thailand's Worawi Makudi -- were being investigated for possible ethics code breaches.

Belgian D'Hooghe, on the FIFA executive committee at the time of the 2010 vote on the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, was quoted then as saying that he "simply had to clarify some well-known cases" to Garcia.

But he told Inside World Football this week that he was going through "the hardest period of my life," again insisting that he had nothing to hide.

The 68-year-old, chairman of FIFA's medical committee, stressed he had co-operated fully with Garcia's 18-month inquiry into the bidding process for the two World Cups.

Explaining that, in mid-October, he had been asked to provide further information to the ethics committee, he said: "I immediately agreed to go again and did so on Nov. 19, and correctly answered all the points they wanted clearing up. I thought at that point it was over.

"Now -- and I don't know why -- they have published the names of people apparently under investigation after I went back to give them more information."

He said he did not understand why, when he was bound by confidentiality, his name had been revealed as one of those under investigation.

D'Hooghe added that he had "asked for a quick conclusion, because I am under great pressure" and explained: "This is the hardest period of my life. You are just considered like a murderer. I am simply a man who has worked for years and years to improve medical issues at FIFA. I'm not so much upset as very, very sad."

He dismissed allegations that he may have traded votes with Japan's FIFA executive committee member, Japan having been one of the candidates for 2022 in the joint ballot.

He described that claim as "total bull**** -- absolutely not true."

In a statement sent to PA by email last week, he stressed that his son Pieter's move to become a surgeon at the Aspetar sports medicine hospital in Qatar in 2012 had been unrelated to the World Cup bid.

And in Belgium-are-under-investigation-in-World-Cup-bidding-probe.html" target="_blank">a separate email to the Daily Telegraph, he said: "I have given all the necessary correct answers, and suppose my case is closed.''

In 2011, D'Hooghe acknowledged that he had accepted a painting from a senior figure involved in the Russia 2018 bid, but stressed that the picture had no value.

Former FIFA executive committee member Franz Beckenbauer is also under investigation by American attorney Garcia, along with Harold Mayne-Nicholls, from Chile.

Last month, Garcia announced that "a number of individuals" have had formal cases opened against them.

FIFA has also lodged a separate criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general.

Last month, Eckert cleared Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, saying rule breaches by the bidding countries were "of very limited scope."

Garcia responded to that conclusion by saying he would lodge an appeal against the decision due to "numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts."

^ Back to Top ^