Fifa was due half of the profits from a 2005 media deal it signed with a Caribbean soccer organization but did not receive a penny, according to a termination letter sent by FIFA.
The contract was signed by Sepp Blatter on behalf of Fifa and the Caribbean Football Union and involved media rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup competitions.
In a July 2011 letter, two Fifa officials wrote to the Caribbean Football Union to say they had expected Fifa to receive 50 percent of all revenue from the sale of broadcast sponsorship and TV commercials.
“To date, Fifa has not received any payments,” wrote Fifa’s Secretary General Jerome Valcke and its Marketing Director Thierry Weil.
Media contracts can be extremely lucrative for Fifa and it has been alleged that the rights for the two tournaments were sold on by Warner for an estimated $15-20 million.
Swiss authorities have said they plan to investigate the deal, after a television news report claimed Fifa sold the media rights to the Caribbean organization for a figure far below market value.
Caribbean Football Union General Secretary Neil Cochrane said in a statement that the group’s current executive committee has no knowledge of contracts signed by its previous leader, Jack Warner, and that those contracts had not been ratified by the group’s governing congress.
On Saturday, Fifa, citing the revenue-sharing provision, said it had been promised more than an initial payment and accused the Caribbean group of failing to meet its financial obligations.
According to Fifa’s termination letter, the deal was terminated as a result of the CFU not fulfilling their financial obligations to Fifa.
Warner was indicted in May in the United States on charges that he solicited bribes. He has said he did nothing wrong and has vowed to fight extradition from Trinidad to New York.
Warner has said previously that he received World Cup media rights since 1998 for favourable rates in exchange for helping Blatter gatehr enough votes to become Fifa president. Fifa has denied this allegation.
