By Duncan Mackay
May 27 – FIFA opened ethics proceedings against its own President Sepp Blatter following a request from his election rival Mohamed Bin Hammam, they announced today.
“FIFA Ethics Committee today opened a procedure against the FIFA President in compliance with art. 16 of the FIFA Code of Ethics,” they said in a statement.
The Ethics Committee are bound by their rules to investigate any complaint by an Executive Committee member under article 16 of the ethics code.
Bin Hammam is due to face an Ethics Committee hearing on Sunday (May 29), three days before facing Blatter in the June 1 FIFA presidential election.
Blatter has also now been summoned to a hearing on Sunday, FIFA said.
Bin Hammam alleges that Jack Warner, the President of CONCACAF and vice-president of FIFA who is also at the centre of the allegations and due to appear before the Ethics Committee, would have informed Blatter beforehand about alleged cash payments to members of the Caribbean Football Union.
By not reporting it Blatter is himself in breach of FIFA’s ethics code, Bin Hammam claims.
Blatter issued a statement saying: “I cannot comment on the proceedings that have been opened against me.
“The facts will speak for themselves.”
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