Fifa president Sepp Blatter faces probe for underselling TV rights for the 2010 and 2014 editions of World Cup

Former anti-graft adviser says the head of soccer's world governing body is a likely target for criminal investigation after signing a 2005 contract to disgraced official Jack Warner

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Fifa boss Sepp Blatter has insisted he has done no wrong. Photo: AP

Published: 10:45pm, 14 Sep 2015Updated: 9:58am, 15 Sep 2015

Fifa president Sepp Blatter should face a criminal investigation for selling undervalued World Cup television rights to Jack Warner, the governing body's former anti-corruption adviser said yesterday.

Mark Pieth, a Swiss professor of criminal law, said Blatter was a likely target in a Swiss federal investigation of "criminal mismanagement" at Fifa.

"Blatter has to defend himself against a form of embezzlement charges. That's a topic they need to discuss," Pieth said of an investigation being led by Switzerland's attorney general.

Former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner gestures while talking to reporters after leaving the Magistrates' Court in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Photo: Reuters

Swiss broadcaster SRF on Friday published a Blatter-signed Fifa contract from 2005 that sold the Warner-controlled Caribbean Football Union rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups for a combined US$600,000.

Warner, then a longstanding Fifa vice-president and Blatter supporter, licensed the rights to a firm controlled by his family. They were then sold for a reported sum of about US$20 million to a Jamaica-based broadcaster.

The contract document appeared to confirm Warner's claim in 2011, after he left Fifa when implicated in bribery, that Fifa let him control cheap World Cup rights in exchange for helping Blatter win presidential polls.