Bin Hammam Request for Blatter to Face Ethics Comm. Granted

Startling new revelations emerged today over the chain of events that led to the biggest corruption scandal in the history of FIFA.

It has been reported that at least five national associations from CONCACAF president Jack Warner’s Caribbean Football Union (CFU) were offered cash bungs but refused to accept them.

Although the countries cannot be named, bribes, understood to amount to several thousand dollars in cash, are believed to be documented in a file of evidence put together by a firm of US-based lawyers and sent to FIFA.

The sweeteners were handed over by two junior CFU officials who face the FIFA Ethics Committee along with Warner and presidential candidate Mohammed Bin Hammam. While several associations refused to accept the offers, others readily accepted the money for “development projects” having been assured no rules were being broken.

If found guilty by the Ethics Committee, Bin Hammam and Warner face severe sentences and the news would all but end the former’s dwindling hopes of dethroning current presidential incumbent Sepp Blatter. Warner is also a key figure in the June 1 elections as he has stated that CONCACAF will vote as a bloc next week, totalling a large section of the available votes.

The bribery allegations have been made by American FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer, who has declined all comment. Blazer has worked with Warner for a generation at the head of CONCACAF but considered the information he discovered so damning he had no choice but to alert FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke.

Bin Hammam and Warner have both denied any wrongdoing and Bin Hammam was making no effort to hide from his colleagues as he freely attended today’s FIFA Finance Committee meeting in Zurich.

Insideworldfootball claims that the documentation provided to FIFA shows that Warner and Bin Hammam exchanged a series of private emails arranging the Trinidad meeting where the bribes allegedly took place well before the CONCACAF Congess in Miami. The files reportedly date back to long before Bin Hammam had encountered problems with a visa which prevented him attending the Congress.

Sources have confirmed that the pair initially discussed holding a second full CONCACAF summit just for Bin Hammam to explain his election manifesto, though it is believed that Blazer blocked that move so Warner turned it into a event solely for Caribbean members of CONCACAF, where allegedly, the money was handed over for “development projects”.

Meanwhile, Bin Hammam says the evidence submitted to FIFA about his own alleged misconduct means Blatter himself broke FIFA’s code of ethics by not reporting the apparent corruption attempt.

The Qatari challenger issued a statement infering that Blatter knew about the accusations of bribery but did nothing – in order to cement his own position, reading: “The accusations .. contain statements according to which Mr. Blatter, the incumbent FIFA President, was informed of, but did not oppose, payments allegedly made to members of the Caribbean Football Union.

“As the recent accusations also mention incumbent FIFA President Joseph Blatter, Mohamed Bin Hammam has requested that the investigation be extended to include Mr Blatter.”

Bin Hammam suggested the crisis was a concerted plan to damage him and force him to withdraw from the election next Wednesday (June 1), adding: “It is no coincidence that these allegations have been made only a few days before the 61st FIFA Congress, at which the new FIFA president will be elected.”

Since making these claims FIFA have released the following statement: “On 26 May 2011, FIFA Executive Committee member Mohamed bin Hammam has requested the FIFA Ethics Committee to open ethics proceedings against FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter on the basis that, in the report submitted by FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer earlier this week, FIFA Vice-President Jack A. Warner would have informed the FIFA President in advance about alleged cash payments to delegations attending a special meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) apparently organised jointly by Jack A. Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam on 10 and 11 May 2011 and that the FIFA President would have had no issue with these.

“Subsequently, the FIFA Ethics Committee today opened a procedure against the FIFA President in compliance with art. 16 of the FIFA Code of Ethics.

“Joseph S. Blatter has been invited to take position by 28 May 2011, 11:00 CET and to attend a hearing by the FIFA Ethics Committee at the Home of FIFA (Zurich) on 29 May 2011.”