FIFA has issued a complaint of 'criminal mismanagement' against its former president Sepp Blatter.
It's been lodged with the Zurich prosecutor and relates to the involvement of former officials at the FIFA museum project in the same city.
Blatter resigned from the presidency in 2015 following a corruption scandal at the governing body.
The museum project had begun two years earlier in 2013.
FIFA documents, according to the PA News Agency, allege that the project was "deliberately mismanaged."
They point to the decision to put 140 million Swiss francs (over €129million) into a building FIFA did not own, to lock FIFA into a rental agreement with the building's owner until at least 2045, costing it a further 360m Swiss francs (over €332m), and the failure to consider other any other suitable properties.
A statement from FIFA Deputy Secretary-General (Administration) Alasdair Bel on Tuesday morning in relation to the matter read;
“Given the massive costs associated with this Museum, as well as the general way of working of the previous FIFA management, a forensic audit was conducted in order to find out what really happened here.
“That audit revealed a wide range of suspicious circumstances and management failures, some of which may be criminal in nature and which therefore need to be properly investigated by the relevant authorities.
We came to the conclusion that we had no choice other than to report the case to state prosecutors, not least because the current management of FIFA also has fiduciary responsibilities to the organisation and we intend to live up to them, even if those before us dismally failed to.”
The current FIFA administration as said they also intend to submit all documentation related to the matter to the independent Ethics Committee to see if further investigations would be appropriate.
They've also pledged to cooperate with the authorities in Switzerland and elsewhere so that anyone who damaged football is held accountable for their actions.
