By Paul Nicholson
December 14 – The Swiss government has responded to questions over whether it plans to shut down FIFA saying that it was not “currently” considering a state intervention at FIFA but fell short of ruling this out as a possibility.
The questions were asked by Swiss MP Thomas de Courten for today’s parliamentary session, but such is the sensitivity of the FIFA issue that the government pre-released answers.
Specifically de Courten asked if the Federal Government planned a state-intervention at FIFA, and whether the US Department of Justice was exercising pressure for the Swiss government to do so.
“The entire Federal Council has addressed the issue and those questions were never discussed,” a government spokesman.
But it is the response from the federal justice authorities that seemingly leaves the door open for state action. “The FDJP is currently not considering intervening in FIFA. Nor is considering to set up an authority that does this. The FDJP has no plans to apply this to the Federal Council,” a spokesperson told Swiss newspaper Berner Zeitung.
So far the Swiss justice authorities say they have not shared any documents seized at FIFA House as part of their own investigations into FIFA with the US authorities.
The Swiss justice department has come under internal criticism for its seeming eagerness to do the US justice authorities’ work for them with the arrests in Zurich of FIFA officials in May before the FIFA Congress, and again 10 days ago before the final FIFA executive committee meeting of the year. The issue in Switzerand has been whether the US demands and Swiss action compromise Swiss sovereignty
Berner Zeitung comments that a “manoeuvring” of Swiss laws to accommodate US Justice objectives in regard to FIFA would actually have a precedent, and points to the case of UBS where US authorities pressured the Swiss to enact an emergency law allowing access to UBS client data.
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