By Andrew Warshaw
May 26 – Startling new revelations emerged today over the chain of events that led to the biggest corruption scandal in the history of FIFA.
As Presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam and veteran FIFA vice-president Jack Warner prepare to face FIFA’s Ethics Committee on Sunday (May 29) after being charged with alleged bribery, insideworldfootball has learned that at least five national associations from Warner’s Caribbean Football Union (CFU) were offered cash bungs but refused to accept them.
Although the countries cannot be named, the bungs, understood to have involved 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.
While several associations refused to accept the sweeteners – handed over by two junior CFU members who have also been charged but who were apparently only acting on instruction – others readily accepted the money for “development projects” having been assured no rules were being broken, insideworldfootball has been told.
If found guilty by the Ethics Committee, Bin Hammam and Warner, the latter long considered a potential kingmaker in the Presidential election on June 1, face severe sentences.
The bribery allegations have been made by FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer (pictured) who has declined all comment.
Blazer has worked with Warner for a generation at the head of CONCACAF – the confederation coveirng North and Central American and the Caribbean – 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.
The Qatari head of the Asian Football Confederation insists he has been set up and will be absolved of all charges against him but fresh information has come to light that could further undermine his position.
When he was unable to attend last month’s CONCACAF Congress in Miami, it was claimed, and reported by this website on good authority, that Bin Hammam was refused a visa to the United States even though he holds a diplomatic passport.
Instead, he was invited by Warner, ostensibly in the interests of fair play, to address Caribbean members of CONCACAF at an alternative one-off meeting in Warner’s native Trinidad a few days later.
insideworldfootball has learned, however, 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 and well before any visa problems may or may not have arisen.
Sources have confirmed that the pair initially discussed holding a second full CONCACAF summit just for Bin Hammam to explain his election manifesto.
Blazer apparently blocked that move so Warner turned it into a event solely for Caribbean members of CONCACAF.
And it was there, it is alleged, that money was handed over for “development projects”.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1735879025labto1735879025ofdlr1735879025owedi1735879025sni@w1735879025ahsra1735879025w.wer1735879025dna1735879025
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