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World football federation Fifa suffered a crushing defeat in the Pretoria High Court last week after its desperate bid to reclaim its trademarks fell flat.
Judge AJ Voster was unconvinced by Fifa’s review application of an order granted to former soccer administrator, Leslie Sedibe, to attach the federation’s trademarks across the country in an effort to force the organisation to review a ban it imposed on him for match-fixing.
Fifa’s unsuccessful review could potentially result in a court trial that might blow the lid on alleged corruption and millions in kickbacks paid to local soccer authorities and government officials.
The federation, which maintains that no court in the world has jurisdiction over it, was dealt a rude awakening when Voster upheld an August 2018 ruling in favour of Sedibe to attach the federation’s trademarks across the country.
“I find no case has been made out for the setting aside of the ex parte order and the application cannot possibly succeed,” said Voster in his six-minute judgment in which he dismissed Fifa’s application with costs.
Sedibe launched the precedent-setting court battle against Fifa by requesting an ex-parte order from the court to attach the federation’s trademarks “to found jurisdiction as they have no assets in South Africa”.
As a result of the attachment order, Fifa has been forced to engage Sedibe in South African courts where he intends to press the federation to review, and potentially overturn, the five-year ban on him after finding him guilty for playing a part in a match-fixing scandal in three friendly soccer matches in the run-up to the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Sedibe has denied wrongdoing and argued that Fifa relied solely on evidence that was allegedly manufactured by local soccer authority bosses to prejudice him.
Since then Sedibe has laid criminal charges with the Hawks against his former boss and Safa president, Danny Jordaan, whom he accuses of facilitating a $10 million bribe paid to disgraced Fifa executive, Jack Warner.
Sedibe also told the Hawks earlier this year that to plug the hole created by the missing millions paid to Warner by South Africa, Jordaan allegedly took him, with cap in hand, to the Gupta brothers at the their Saxonwold compound to request money that would then be used for the preparation of the national soccer team ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Safa has denied any wrongdoing on behalf of its president.
In its quest to reclaim its intellectual property, Fifa engaged legal heavy hitters, Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs, to file its review application to have Judge Van der Westhuizen’s August 2018 court ruling ordering the attachment of the federation’s intellectual property to be set aside.
FIFA ABUSING ITS POWER
In its papers, Fifa argued that Sedibe’s service of legal documents, with the permission of the court – including the draft order to attach its trademarks – on the federation by email was not in line with the laws of Switzerland and further threatened that the exercise constituted an act of criminality and was punishable by jail time according to Swiss law.
“International service of process without resorting to the channels of judicial assistance, ie without interposing Swiss authorities, may constitute a criminal offence under Act 271 of the Swiss Criminal Code,” said a South African attorney, James Haydock, in an affidavit on behalf of Fifa.
Fifa’s failure to convince the court has since put the federation a step closer to appearing in an African court for the first time in defence of its rules and the alleged arbitrary application thereof.
In his responding affidavit to Fifa’s review application, Sedibe accused the federation of abusing its power as well as its attempting to undermine South Africa’s judiciary.
“I respectfully submit that Fifa’s application is not only premature and mischievous, but it is also an abuse of power and the court process and lacks merit and should be dismissed with costs.
“Having worked and interacted with a number of officials at Fifa during my tenure as the CEO of Safa and as the head of legal and ticketing of the 2010 Fifa World Cup organising committee, I am aware that Fifa will do all in its power to prevent any matter from being reviewed by a court outside of Switzerland and particularly by a South African court,” Sedibe said.
He accused Safa bosses of colluding with Fifa to ensure that the guilty verdict against him stuck, by giving him a mere three days to file an appeal in Zurich, Switzerland.
He claimed he was further refused access to documents and information that Fifa relied on to arrive at its decision.
“Fifa bluntly ignored my requests for access to files, emails, documents, records including my laptop which would have assisted me in preparing an appropriate statement of defence to the allegations levelled against me.
“My request to have access to my laptop, which was returned to Safa, was ignored and I had no access to documents that would have established my defence beyond reasonable doubt. Neither my version nor the documents in support thereof was before the Fifa Tribunal and most important and vital information was not taken into account in coming to its conclusion.
“I find it disconcerting that I was required to prepare and lodge an appeal against a decision which, according to the applicant was taken in Zurich, without any access to information, and to do so within a period of three days,” said Sedibe.
