• Public prosecutor decided no action would be taken despite strong evidence • Former Uefa president Johansson among those critical of failure to act

The Swiss authorities missed the opportunity 13 years ago to clean up Fifa and investigate Sepp Blatter thoroughly, according to senior football figures who brought a criminal complaint against the Fifa president in 2002 for alleged fraud, corruption and mismanagement. Blatter, who confirmed on Tuesday that he would appeal to the court of arbitration for sport against his eight-year ban imposed by Fifa’s ethics committee on Monday for mismanagement and conflict of interest, was in 2002 accused by Fifa’s then general secretary, Michel Zen-Ruffinen, of malpractices bearing a striking resemblance to current allegations being made against him.

In a remarkable cleanup effort at the highest level of football’s world governing body, 11 members of the 24-man executive committee filed the criminal complaint against Blatter’s running of Fifa to a Zurich court, calling for an investigation into Zen-Ruffinen’s allegations, which were supported by 300 pages of documents.

Blatter always angrily denied any wrongdoing, said the allegations were full of factual mistakes, and depicted the process as the antagonism of his rivals before the presidential election at the end of May 2002. Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, now the acting president after Blatter’s suspension and ban, was standing against him then, and accused Blatter of “illegal” and “reprehensible” practices. Blatter won the election, then denounced his critics, including scoffing at Zen-Ruffinen as “Mr Clean” before adding: “Friday, I throw Zen-Ruffinen out of the door.”

In December 2002, the Zurich public prosecutor announced that no action would be taken against Fifa or Blatter and closed the investigation, even stating that the complainants themselves were “reprehensible” and their legal case was “bordering on false accusation”.

Lennart Johansson, the then Uefa president, was one of the executive committee members who filed the criminal complaint. He had lost out in the 1998 presidential election, when Blatter was strongly accused of vote-buying, which the Swiss denied. The Swede maintains that an investigation should have been conducted more thoroughly, on a scale similar to those now being carried out by the Swiss attorney general, Michael Lauber, and US criminal authorities. They have in effect taken control of all files at Fifa’s HQ in Zurich, including Blatter’s office, seized property and computer data, and are investigating dozens of Fifa-related Swiss bank accounts. Johansson and his allies argue that an era of corruption and mismanagement, which has now brought Fifa to infamy, could have been avoided if the Swiss authorities had acted robustly then.

Fifa tells Michel Platini he cannot go straight to court of arbitration for sport Read more

One source with close knowledge of the 2002 process told the Guardian that the Zurich prosecutor did not mount an investigation at all resembling the seriousness of the current one, and did not even contact Zen-Ruffinen at any stage to discuss the allegations or evidence he had compiled from four years working as general secretary, the highest executive level in Fifa.

Johansson said: “I feel we, Fifa and football were let down by the Swiss authorities. They had evidence, we filed a complaint in court asking for an investigation, we had Swiss lawyers helping us to present the case, but we lost and Blatter somehow kept everything under control. I feel we were let down, and that now the Americans and Swiss should properly investigate.”

Per Omdal, the then chairman of the Norway Football Association, who also supported the criminal complaint, said his executive committee allies had serious unease about the management of finances and lack of transparency within Fifa at the time. “How the international development work was being financed, the controls and auditing, Sepp Blatter’s salary never being disclosed – it was all very, very vague,” Omdal said. “We raised our concerns that this was not proper, but the Swiss authorities did not seem to be interested. I cannot say for sure if years of mismanagement could have been avoided, but we feel that.”

After the complaint was rejected, Blatter remained as president for a further 13 years until his ban this week. During that time, Fifa’s income from World Cup TV rights and sponsorships increased into the billions of dollars and substantial corrupt practices have been proven to have taken place.

High-ranking executive committee members, including the American Chuck Blazer, a Blatter supporter in that 2002 battle, have pleaded guilty to habitual bribe-taking, and 27 defendants are currently indicted for alleged corruption in the US. They include three other prominent Blatter supporters in the 2002 confrontation: Jack Warner of Trinidad, Nicolás Leoz of Paraguay and Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil, all of whom have denied any wrongdoing.

Zen-Ruffinen produced his 21-page dossier in May 2002, containing a list of allegations including that Blatter authorised the award of TV deals for less than their commercial value, and made cash payments to African football people who supported him. A whole section was reported to have been devoted to Warner, the then president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football Associations (Concacaf), including the allegations that a £6m loan was improperly written off and that World Cup TV rights were sold to Warner at an undervaluation – an allegation against Blatter now subject to criminal investigation by Lauber.

Zen-Ruffinen’s dossier was supported by 300 pages of internal documents to which he had access in the course of his work at Fifa HQ, and he distributed it to all 24 members of the executive committee. Those who then filed the criminal complaint included Johansson, Omdal, Hayatou and Britain’s then representative, David Will, a lawyer by profession who was the chairman of the Scottish FA. Will died in 2009.

Sepp Blatter's reign as head of Fifa marked by scandal from outset Read more

The Zurich public prosecutor, having been required by law to formally investigate, stated when closing the investigation that the executive committee members were complaining about some financial transactions they themselves had approved. That was, he said, what made it “reprehensible” and “bordering on false accusation”. That left executive committee members vulnerable to legal action from Blatter himself, and they withdrew the complaint.

However, they argue they were not fully informed about the basis for some financial decisions in the executive committee at the time and were sufficiently alarmed by Zen-Ruffinen’s evidence to call for a thorough investigation. One senior source from the time said that Blatter had formed a sub-bureau of the finance committee, run only by its Argentinian chairman, Julio Grondona, Blatter himself and Warner, and they passed decisions to the executive committee ready to approve.

Roland Büchel, a member of the Swiss parliament who has successfully campaigned for the introduction of a new law outlawing bribery, said he believed there was a culture for too long of tolerance towards Fifa and other sporting associations which enjoy legal and tax-exempt freedoms in Switzerland. Büchel saidthis was partly because of the perception that the associations were good for the prestige of the country, which supplies a capable, multilingual workforce to staff them. “It is a matter of regret that nothing was done then,” Büchel said. “The public prosecutors – and the media and politicians – missed a chance; Fifa’s propaganda did a good job for many years. Things have changed gradually, and we have to admit the involvement of the US is important.”

Blatter’s lawyers did not respond to a series of questions about the 2002 allegations, which he has always denied. A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor in Zurich confirmed that the case was closed for the reasons stated at the time, and said no more details could be provided because it is subject to “professional confidentiality”.