Volleygate judge will only hear witnesses for the defence

When the court case against FIVB president Ruben Acosta and two other FIVB officials opens in Lausanne on 8 March, the only witnesses allowed are those of the defendants. Judge Michel Carrard has turned down all witnesses sugggested by Mario Goijman, the former president of the former Argentine Volleyball Federation who brought the matter to trial.

In a letter to Mario Goijman’s Swiss layers the judge argues that none of the witnesses they suggest can supply information that is pertinent to forming a judgement on the case.

Ruben Acosta, former FIVB secretary general Jean-Pierre Seppey and FIVB official Franz Schmied face charges of falsifying the auditor's report on FIVB's financial status in 2000 before it was presented to the World Congress in 2002 and withholding information about the payment of commissions to the FIVB president for a total amount of 8,32 million SFr.

The question in court will be whether it was deliberate or a mistake that the critical note made by auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers about the lack of transparency on payments made to Ruben Acosta disappeared from the financial accounts.

Mario Goijman’s lawyers would have liked to present witnesses that could provide the judge with an insight into the way affairs are conducted in the FIVB and how Ruben Acosta could have a motive for omitting the auditor’s note from the financial accounts presented to the FIVB World Congress.

The witnesses proposed by Mario Goijman included IOC president Jacques Rogge and Paquerette Girard Zappeli from the IOC’s Ethics Commission that in 2004 recommended a severe sanction against Acosta for violating the principle that money from sports must go to sports. The list also included three former Executive Vice Presidents from FIVB who were unaware of Acosta’s money deviation, the auditors, the FIVB accountant and the students from the Danish School of Journalism who carried out a survey which documented that volleyball leaders around the world are scared of going up against Acosta.

None of these will be heard but the court will hear testimony from former Swiss President Adolf Ogi who is now special adviser to Kofi Annan on issues of sport and development. It is as yet unclear what he knows about notes omitted from FIVB accounts.

Mario Goijman who brought the case against FIVB has very few expectations from the case that he spent three years and a lot of his own money on getting to court.

“But I will still be there with my fight, and I hope that the press will also be there to reflect the sport corruption and how the Swiss system seems to protect these individuals,” he says to Play the Game.

For more information about Volleygate go to Play the Game's theme page