SEPP BLATTER is at risk again from the World Cup bribery scandal that tainted much of his FIFA presidency.

    Switzerland’s justice ministry confirmed Monday that American authorities formally asked for files in the ISL kickbacks case to aid their sprawling investigation of alleged racketeering by international soccer leaders.

    The ISL marketing agency was found to have routinely bribed top sports officials, including Blatter’s predecessor Joao Havelange, before collapsing into criminal bankruptcy in 2001.

    British broadcaster the BBC aired a program Monday alleging it had seen a letter obtained by the FBI that was written by Havelange and said Blatter had “full knowledge” of kickback payments in the 1990s. Blatter was Havelange’s general secretary for 17 years until becoming president in 1998.

    Blatter would not comment on the BBC’s claim, his spokesman Klaus Stoehlker said Monday.

    FIFA said it is cooperating to provide “all relevant information” to ongoing American and Swiss investigations, and would not comment on specific allegations.

    The ISL case sent FIFA into financial crisis, then dogged the governing body and Blatter through a criminal trial of six agency executives in 2008. A legal fight followed as FIFA tried to keep sealed the identity of officials named in a settlement deal to repay bribes.

    Two years ago, FIFA finally declared the case closed after its ethics committee reviewed the case.

    The ethics judgment confirmed three longtime executive committee members as bribe-takers: Havelange, who was FIFA president from 1974-1998, resigned as honorary president; his former son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil, who had resigned a year earlier; and Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay, who resigned as president of the South American confederation CONMEBOL.

    Crticizing Havelange and Teixeira for “morally and ethically reproachable” conduct, the ethics ruling of April 2013 also noted that commercial bribery was not illegal in Switzerland in the 1990s.(SD-Agencies)