Exclusive: Bin Hammam orders Asian countries not to boycott FIFA Congress

By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich

May 31 – Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam has ordered his members not to walk out of tomorrow’s eagerly awaited FIFA Congress as he and veteran FIFA powerbroker Jack Warner stepped up their legal fight against being suspended for allegedly paying thousands of dollars in bribes to Caribbean nations.

Bin Hammam was locked in talks with his legal team today in an attempt to find a way of attending the upcoming FIFA Congress and Presidential election in which he had been due to take on Sepp Blatter for the top job in world football before officially pulling out of the race.

Speculation intensified overnight that Asian nations, who suddenly called off a meeting scheduled for this morning in the wake of their President’s suspension, would boycott the congress, the formal opening ceremony of which was due to take place later today.

But bin Hammam said he wanted all of them to show solidarity and take part as planned.

Bin Hammam’s mandate will doubtless be interpreted by some as a deliberately attempt not to further jeopardise Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup – something a mass walkout could well achieve.

He insisted, however, that he simply did not want Asia to indulge in sour grapes and disrupt the Congress.

“We are part of the football family,” a tired and drawn-looking bin Hammam told insideworldfootball at his downtown Zurich hotel.

“My issue is personal.

“It should not affect the organisation and should not affect all our friends in Asia.

“I have specifically told the members that we should cooperate and that they should not walk out.”

Bin Hammam is understood to be questioning why his appeal against being suspended by the Ethics Committee cannot be heard straight away.

FIFA’s line is that because he has only just appealed, no hearing can take place until after the Congress, effectively barring him from joining his colleagues from throughout Asia at the opening ceremony and the Congress itself, a huge embarrassment since Bin Hammam, until Sunday morning, was a Presidential candidate as well as head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

“I am staying to fight my case,” was Bin Hammam’s reply when asked if he had given up all hope of attending.

As Bin Hammam considered his next move, insideworldfootball learned that Warner, CONCACAF president and Bin Hammam’s partner in the biggest alleged bribery case in FIFA history, was also taking legal advise in his hotel five minutes walk away.

Unconfirmed reports suggested Warner left for Zurich Airport early today, only to turn back.

But insideworldfootball has learned this may not have been the case and that Warner may have been calling together witnesses for a meeting at his hotel.

A call to his room when this reporter visited was answered with “Mr. Warner is not available right now,” confirmation that he was at least still in town.

Bizarrely, a few floors up from the lobby where insideworldfootball spoke to Bin Hammam, Chuck Blazer, the FIFA Executive Committee whistleblower, was fielding scores of calls over his decision to shop his two colleagues and bring the bribery case to the Ethics Committee.

Blazer, general secretary of CONCACAF, has been attacked by Warner, with whom he worked for 21 years, on several fronts since the scandal erupted and has spent much of the past two days holed up in his room amid a string of claims and counter-claims.

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