FIFA donates returned CBF watches to charity

The FIFA Ethics Committee has decided to donate the 48 luxury watches given to senior figures at the governing body and national association heads prior to the 2014 World Cup to a charity in Brazil.

Members of the FIFA Executive Committee and national associations – including Football Association chairman Greg Dyke – were controversially given the Parmigiani timepieces at the FIFA congress prior to that year’s tournament.

The watches were found to have a market of value of £16,000 and had to be returned if the officials involved wanted to avoid disciplinary action when it was found the gifts were unauthorised according to FIFA’s code of ethics.

Now, an Ethics Committee statement has confirmed the returned items will be donated to Brazilian charity streetfootballworld.

It read: “The independent Ethics Committee has donated 48 watches to global NGO streetfootballworld. The investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee earlier demanded that the watches be turned over to the Ethics Committee after determining that they were unauthorised gifts as per the FIFA Code of Ethics. 

“The Brazilian Football Association (CBF) had offered the watches as gifts to certain football officials, including members of FIFA’s Executive Committee and representatives of football associations, attending the 64th FIFA Congress held in Brazil prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. 

“On 18 September 2014, under the leadership of its former chairman, the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee decided not to open formal ethics proceedings in this matter against officials who had received the gifts provided that they return them to the Ethics Committee. 

“After having investigated the matter thoroughly, the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee found evidence that from the initially intended 65 watches offered by the CBF to football officials, several officials had, in fact, not received a watch. Following said investigations and after contacting all potential recipients, 48 watches were returned to the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee.

“The investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, led by its chairman Dr Cornel Borbely, decided that all watches returned to FIFA would now be donated to the international non-profit organisation streetfootballworld, who will directly invest all resources generated through the sale of the watches into initiatives across Brazil that use football to drive social change. 

“The investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee considers the matter to be closed.”