NZ companies say no experience of Fifa corruption

German players celebrate with their trophy after the World Cup final. Photo / AP

New Zealand broadcasters and media companies are unlikely to be dragged into the Fifa bribery and corruption scandal, which largely relates to hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks paid to secure media and marketing rights for world cups.

The owner of a Brazilian sports marketing company Traffic Group has already pleaded guilty to four corruption charges and agreed to forfeit US$151 million ($208.2 million) as part of a settlement.

Two Argentinean sports marketing company officials are also among the 14 men indicted by American authorities.

The charges relate to the purchase and on-selling of television rights for Fifa world cups and other major events.

According to reports, up to 70 per cent of the $5.7 billion in revenue Fifa generated between 2011 and 2014 was from the sale of TV and marketing rights for the 2014 world cup.

Despite the eye-popping numbers and alleged widespread corruption, sports industry insiders here say New Zealand companies are unlikely to be drawn into the scandal.

"I can't think of one circumstance, and I have been doing this for 25 years, where there has been any indication of anything like we've seen going on at Fifa overnight," said former MediaWorks boss Brent Impey.

Mr Impey led MediaWorks' successful bid for the 2007 Rugby World Cup television rights. The process involved tendering to the IRB's agent IMG. It was hotly contested but Mr Impey had never heard of requests for bribes or third party payments being tabled.

Tim Martin, the chief executive of Coliseum Sports Media - the internet broadcaster that had successfully prized the rights to English Premier League football and PGA Tour golf from SKY NZ - said New Zealand's comparatively tiny market helped insulate it from major corruption.

"This is all stuff that is so many leagues above anything remotely us," Mr Martin said. "We are so little and this is such big boy stuff. It is just not happening down here. SKY play it super straight, everyone plays it straight. It's not happening here, it's not the way anyone conducts business down here."

On Monday SKY NZ announced it had secured rights to broadcast the next two Fifa world cups, 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar.

SKY director of sport Richard Last was unavailable for interview, however a company spokesman confirmed in had negotiated directly with Fifa officials in Zurich to secure a deal that also includes all men's and women's FIFA U-17 and FIFA U-20 FIFA World Cups, as well as the FIFA Beach Soccer, FIFA Futsal, FIFA Confederations Cup and FIFA Women's World Cups between 2015 and 2022.