Blatter, Bin Hammam and Warner attend Ethics Committee hearing in Zurich

By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich

May 29 – The FIFA Ethics Committee hearing into bribery allegations involving three of football’s most powerful administrators got under way today amid speculation that at least two of them will be suspended and that the Presidential vote, scheduled for Wednesday (June 1), could be called off.

Chuck Blazer, the American·Executive Committee member who· brought the allegations against Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner to the attention of FIFA, was first to be interviewed by the Ethics Committee, understood to comprise three officials and chaired by Petrus Damaseb, a Namibian judge.

Blazer was followed by the controversial Warner, who threatened to unleash a “football tsunami” if he is sanctioned.

Then came Bin Hammam, who suddenly·pulled out of the race against present incumbent Sepp Blatter early today.

Blatter, who was surprisingly dragged into the affair by Bin Hammam late on, was the last person to be hauled before his own Committee, with a news conference scheduled for later to announce what punishments had been meted out.

Bin Hammam has been accused of paying Caribbean voters during a campaign visit to Trinidad that was apparently organised by Warner.

Blatter was called to the Committee to answer a different charge, that he turned·a blind eye to what Bin Hammam claims were simply·travel and accommodation expenses·which he says·his one-time colleague·knew about.

Meanwhile Franz Beckenbauer, who retires as a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee at the FIFA Congress on Wednesday, described the crisis as a “disaster for football.”

“I hope when June 1 comes and the election will be over, then all the discussion about corruption is finished and FIFA can go back to normal,” Beckenbauer told BBC Radio.

“I don’t know what’s going on in the next days, but in general it’s my opinion it’s very, very bad.”

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