FIFA Presidential election may be postponed following Blatter investigation

By Andrew Warshaw

May 27 – Next week’s FIFA Presidential election was plunged into total farce today when Sepp Blatter himself was dragged into the biggest bribery scandal ever to hit the organisation.

The most powerful man in world football was ordered to appear before his own Ethics Committee on Sunday (May 29), three days before the ballot, following suggestions by his under-fire rival Mohamed Bin Hammam, accused of paying bribes to Caribbean federations, that he knew about the alleged cash inducements but deliberately sat on the information.

Bin Hammam, head of the Asian Football Confederation, and FIFA’s senior vice-president Jack Warner, the President of CONCACAF, had already been summoned to Sunday’s hearing for their alleged roles in the bribes-for-votes scandal understood to involve bundles of several thousand dollars.

FIFA’s Ethics Committee are bound by their rules to investigate any complaint by an Executive Committee member and Bin Hammam has been quick to exploit this, believing that a campaign has been orchestrated against him by Blatter’s supporters in order to get him out of the Presidential race and give the 75-year-old Swiss a free run for another four years.

If both Blatter, who has until 11 am local time toorrow to draw up his defence, and Bin Hammam end up being suspended, the June 1 election is certain to be called off.

It could, theoretically, still go ahead if one or other is exonerated.

The alleged bribery took place on May 10-11 at a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) meeting specially arranged for Bin Hammam’s election campaign by Warner in his native Trinidad.

But whether Bin Hammam will have enough evidence to support his counter-claim concerning Blatter remains to be seen.

While the proof against both both the 62-year-old Qatari and the controversial Warner is claimed to be highly damaging according to documents lodged with the Ethics Committee, claiming Blatter knew in advance about any skulduggery and sat on it – in itself a breach of ethics – it could be more difficult to prove.

Sources have told insideworldfootball that Bin Hammam’s move could simply be the result of exploiting a loophole in an effort to save face and cling on to his bid for the presidency.

In an e-mailed statement yesterday, Bin Hammam said he had asked for Blatter to be added to the probe because there were statements suggesting the FIFA President “was informed of, and did not oppose” the alleged payments.

“The timing of the accusations so close to the election of FIFA president on June 1, 2011, suggests that they are part of a plan to damage Mr. Bin Hammam and force him to withdraw as a candidate for the FIFA presidency,” he said.

But in his latest exclusive column for insideworldfootball Blatter said claims that the entire matter was somehow masterminded by him were “ludicrous and completely reprehensible.”

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