By David Gold
August 15 – Mohamed Bin Hammam has once again vowed to clear his name after FIFA opened up a new investigation against the Qatari, who has accused world football’s governing body of a “clear abuse of power”.
Bin Hammam (pictured above and below, right) was recently successful in his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn his life ban from football.
He was handed the ban after an investigation into allegations he and former Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) chief Jack Warner had conspired to bribe voters in the run up to last year’s FIFA Presidential election, in which Bin Hammam was the only challenger to incumbent Sepp Blatter.
Warner subsequently resigned his football roles, with an investigation into his conduct dropped, but Bin Hammam took his battle against FIFA all the way to CAS after being handed the life ban.
The CAS verdict ruled that there was insufficient evidence against the former Asian football powerbroker but crucially did not entirely clear his name, and gave FIFA room to open up a new investigation, which they duly did last week, led by Michael Garcia, the organisation’s independent prosecutor.
The 63-year-old was also banned from football for up to 90 days by FIFA as they looked into fresh allegations relating to his time in charge of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Garcia is studying an audit of the AFC’s finances, in which Bin Hammam is alleged to have broken regulations which relate to bribery and gifts.
Bin Hammam is suspended by the AFC due to those allegations which he denies.
When the allegations of bribing CONCACAF voters were made public in the days before the FIFA election, Bin Hammam was forced to withdraw his candidacy.
He has since alleged that FIFA’s investigation and ban were a result of a personal vendetta because he challenged Blatter (pictured above, left).
Bin Hammam has written a letter to AFC committee members, quoted by the BBC, which reads: “My legal team has filed an immediate response to the actions of the AFC and FIFA in relation to my latest politically-motivated ban.
“I will announce further steps very shortly to challenge this clear abuse of power and process at the hand of FIFA.”
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734831056labto1734831056ofdlr1734831056owedi1734831056sni@d1734831056log.d1734831056ivad1734831056
