Soccer

Fifa’s Michel D’Hooghe claims he is being treated ‘like a murderer’

Long-serving administrator one of three under investigation in relation to alleged breaches of ethics rules

Dr Michel D’Hooghe: ‘I have been in football for 42 years and 26 on the executive committee, but this is the hardest period of my life. You are just considered like a murderer.’ Photograph: Stuart Franklin / Getty Images
Dr Michel D’Hooghe: ‘I have been in football for 42 years and 26 on the executive committee, but this is the hardest period of my life. You are just considered like a murderer.’ Photograph: Stuart Franklin / Getty Images
Tue Dec 02 2014 - 17:01

Long-serving Fifa administrator Michel D'Hooghe claims he is being treated "like a murderer" as he is investigated as part of the World Cup anti-corruption probe.

The 68-year-old Belgian does not understand why he is being targeted and has said he has co-operated fully with Fifa ethics investigator Michael Garcia’s inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process.

D'Hooghe, who is the chairman of Fifa's medical committee, is one of three current executive committee members who took part in the December 2010 ballot which chose Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts understood to be under investigation by Garcia in relation to possible breaches of ethics rules.

“I have asked for a quick conclusion because I am under great pressure,” D’Hooghe told insideworldfootball.com.

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“I have been in football for 42 years and 26 on the executive committee, but 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.”

Spain's Fifa vice-president Angel Maria Villar Llona and Thailand's Worawi Makudi are the other ExCo members understood to be under investigation by Garcia. Franz Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as a player and a coach with West Germany, was on the executive committee which voted four years ago and is also understood to be under investigation by Garcia, as is Chile's Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who led the Fifa technical inspection team which evaluated all nine 2018 and 2022 World Cup candidates.

D’Hooghe says he has nothing to hide having co-operated with Garcia’s initial inquiry and after having received a request for more information in October.

He added: “Now, I don’t know why, they have published the names of five people apparently under investigation and this is after I went back to give them more information.”