Ternyata Federasi Sepakbola Internasional (FIFA) pun bersikap sangat tertutup dalam hal finansialnya.
Hal itu tecermin dalam laporan keuangan FIFA Tahun 2010 yang dirilis Februari 2011.
Ada yang menarik terutama pengeluaran untuk anggota Komite Eksekutif, yaitu sebesar 56% dibandingkan jumlah yang dikeluarkan pada 2009. Ditilik lebih jauh ke belakang, pada 2009 pun gaji “para eksekutif” FIFA telah dinaikkan 13% dari anggaran 2008.
Jumlah dana yang dikeluarkan FIFA untuk menggaji dan memberi ongkos kepada 24 anggota Komite Eksekutif termasuk Presiden Sepp Blatter pada 2010 mencapai 20,3 juta pound atau sekitar Rp290 miliar.
Jumlah itu pun termasuk salary untuk Sekretaris Jenderal FIFA Jerome Valcke dan empat direktur senior. Andaikata jumlah itu dibagi rata, maka setiap anggota mendapatkan sekitar 700 ribu pound (sekitar Rp10 miliar) per tahun.
FIFA tidak mau memberikan rincian detail terkait besaran gaji dan pengeluaran bagi Blatter dkk. FIFA beralasan soal finansial tersebut merupakan hal yang “private”. Tak aneh jika petinggi FIFA mendapat gaji yang terbilang jauh di atas rata-rata itu. Pasalnya, Komite Finansial FIFA yang terdiri dari enam anggota dipilih oleh ke-24 anggota Komite Eksekutif.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter FIFA says the salaries of its president, Sepp Blatter, and members of the executive committee are 'private'. Photograph: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images
FIFA's highest executives are rather well paid. Of course, in line with the organisation's loose-at-best commitment to transparency, we cannot tell exactly how much the president, Sepp Blatter, receives from his work.
We also cannot tell this about anyone else in the top echelon because, says FIFA, such information is "private". But we do know that "key management personnel" between them rake in millions in "short-term employee benefits".
FIFA's 2010 financial report, released last month, revealed that salaries and expenses earned by the executive committee and top management amounted to £20.3 million.
This constituted a 56% rise on 2009 and that year's earnings were a 13% hike on 2008. The sums were shared between Blatter and the 23 other members of the executive committee.
Also enjoying a piece of this action were FIFA's general secretary, Jérôme Valcke, and four other senior directors. If the money was shared equally between all of them it means they each took about £700,000 over the year (with a total of £1.18m in pension contributions on top).
So who approved this staggering remuneration package? It was the six-man FIFA finance committee. That body is drawn from the executive committee that is so lavished by "short-term employee benefits" for "key management personnel".
Sepp strikes out
Sepp Blatter's commitments for inaugurating FIFA projects have taken him into the heart of territory controlled by his likely presidential challenger, Mohamed bin Hammam.
Digger reported yesterday that Blatter, pictured, is in Burma to open an academy, having been in East Timor. Next he is off to Laos, another country in the Asian Football Confederation, of which Bin Hammam is president. However, with Bin Hammam due to be in Kuala Lumpur on Friday - he is set to announce his candidacy there - it looks like Blatter has chalked off a planned visit to Malaysia.
Grounds for concern
Walsall say in a statement on their website that they have "been informed by [their] landlord Suffolk Life Annuities of [its] intention to sell [its] freehold in the Banks's Stadium site". This seems odd. Suffolk Life is a pensions firm that assumes freeholds of commercial property belonging to its clients. And Land Registry records suggest that Suffolk Life only holds the freehold of the land around the Banks's Stadium on behalf of the club owner Jeff Bonser's pension.
Indeed under the terms of the 2003 transfer of the freehold, the club owner and Robert Bonser "jointly and severally covenant" to pay for any upkeep and maintenance of the stadium demanded by the local authority or anyone else in authority. This would be an extremely onerous undertaking if they did not retain any ownership interest.
This is consistent with Suffolk Life's stock in trade. Its promotional material offers "great way[s] for a property owner to get part or all of their property into their pension fund and then benefit from the tax advantages of a pension."
Suffolk Life's SIPPs prospectus says one of its "more unusual acquisitions" is a football stadium. The sale agent, Nick Allan of DTZ, "can't comment on the motives behind the sale". Walsall's club secretary, Daniel Mole, said he did not know. So no one can be sure if the ground in question is the Banks's Stadium. But it cannot be healthy for Walsall if Bonser controls the stadium and is selling it independently.
Burns still bright
Those who believe the Premier League does not support the Burns Report, which in 2005 made many good suggestions for the governance of football, will be undermined on Wednesday. Lord Burns will take the stage at a CentreForum event at Westminster alongside, Bill Bush, the League's top policy wonk.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/15/sepp-blatter-fifa-executive-committee)
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