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United States to present fresh FIFA allegations

 Attorney General of the United States Loretta Lynch
Image: United States attorney general Loretta Lynch will present an update of the FIFA investigation on Monday

United States attorney general Loretta Lynch will provide the latest details on the FIFA investigation at a news conference in Zurich on Monday.

The conference comes as fresh revelations emerge about television deals signed off by outgoing president Sepp Blatter.

Disgraced former FIFA official Jack Warner - one of 18 people indicted by the US justice department on football-related corruption charges - made a profit of around £11m on World Cup TV rights which Blatter allegedly sold him for a fraction of their true value.

Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber is also due to speak at the news conference to give details on the separate investigation in to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes.

Swiss television channel SRF has published a contract that Blatter signed off in 2005 for the broadcast rights for South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014 to be sold to the Warner-controlled Caribbean Football Union (CFU) for 600,000 US dollars (£389,000).

It is alleged that Warner, at that time CFU's president, sub-licensed those rights to his own Cayman Islands-registered company J & D International (JDI). In 2007, JDI sold on the rights to Jamaica-based cable TV station SportsMax for a value that the broadcaster reported on its own website as being between 18m and 20m US dollars.

The revelations highlight the questionable relationship between the outgoing FIFA president Blatter and Warner, his one-time backer and Caribbean powerbroker.

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter gestures as he speaks during  a press conference on May 30, 2015 in Zurich after being re-elected during the FIFA Congress
Image: Fresh revelations have emerged about TV deals signed off by Sepp Blatter

According to court documents in the Cayman Islands, Jeffrey Webb - Warner's successor as president of the CONCACAF confederation - was a director of JDI at the time of the deal.

Webb is currently on bail in New York, as is former FIFA member Chuck Blazer - who has admitted to taking a share of a bribe for he and Warner to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup. Warner is fighting extradition to the United States from Trinidad.

FIFA's deal with the CFU included an agreement for a 50 per cent share of any profits from sub-contracting the rights but few, if any, payments from profit share were ever made by Warner and in July 2011, a month after he resigned from FIFA following bribery allegations, FIFA terminated its contract with the CFU.

It was not the first time FIFA had given Warner TV rights for a knockdown price - in 1998 he was awarded the 2002 World Cup TV rights for Trinidad and Tobago for just one dollar, a practice that had begun under Blatter's predecessor Joao Havelange.

Jack Warner
Image: Jack Warner is said to have made a profit of around £11m on World Cup TV rights

The SRF programme published a contract signed by Blatter showing the TV rights for the 2010 World Cup had been sold for 250,000 US dollars and the 2014 tournament for 350,000 dollars to the Warner-controlled CFU.

FIFA responded by issuing a statement saying: "On 12 September 2005, FIFA signed a contract with the Caribbean Football Union regarding TV broadcasting rights.

"Under the terms of this agreement FIFA was to receive a fixed licensing fee as well as a 50 per cent share of any profits related to the subcontracting of these rights.

"The CFU made several breaches to the contract and failed to meet its financial obligations. The obligations concerning the required pre-approval for subcontracting were not met either.

"For these reasons, FIFA terminated its contract with the CFU on 25 July 2011."

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