Mohamed Bin Hammam Questions Chuck Blazer's Timing

Warner and Bin Hammam Accused of Bribery

Mohamed Bin Hammam has attacked Chuck Blazer timing of bringing the bribery matter to light, the president of the Asian Football Confederation, was suspended along with Fifa vice-president Jack Warner in the wake of bribery accusations.

Bin Hammam had withdrawn from the election process after Chuck Blazer launched an investigation into the bribery allegations.

"The allegations refer to the extraordinary meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago of 10 May 2011. According to his own statement, Mr Blazer was notified about the alleged offers on the same day.

"However only a few days before the presidential election, he submitted his written report.

"That timing reveals the real purpose of the allegations, namely to influence the upcoming presidential election by discrediting Mr Bin Hammam and Mr Warner, the first being a candidate and the second being an influential person who has not yet taken a position as to which candidate he would support.

"This is a blunt abuse of the institution of the Fifa Ethics Committee."

Jack Warner Responds To Fifa

Jack Warner has hit out at Fifa and has mentioned allegations concerning Sepp Blatter, just like what everyone thought that Fifa was corrupt, the story of how the world football governing body is run seems to be unfolding day by day.

Warner claimed Blatter made gifts of computers to officials plus an unauthorised 1million US dollar gift to his confederation CONCACAF.

Jack Warner along with Mohamed Bin Hammam was banned by Fifa's ethics committee on Sunday pending the full inquiry into allegations they paid officials 40,000 dollars each in bribes which was brought to light by Chuck Blazier, both Warner and Bin Hammam have denied making any payments.

Warner said in a statement: "I denied the allegations that I made statements at the CFU [Caribbean Football Union] meeting about gifts being given by Mr Bin Hammam.

"I also indicated that at the Miami CONCACAF Congress on May 3 Mr Blatter made a gift of one million USD to CONCACAF to spend as it deems fit.

"This annoyed [UEFA] President Michel Platini who was present and he approached Secretary General Jerome Valcke complaining that Mr Blatter had no permission from the Finance Committee to make this gift to which Jerome replied that he will find the money for Mr Blatter.

"I also indicated at the CFU meeting held in Trinidad on May 10 which was requested by Mr Bin Hammam, FIFA through Mr Blatter organised gifts of laptops and projectors to all members of the Caribbean and no objections have been made today of this to date."

Mohamed Bin Hammam Reacts To Allegations

Fifa Senior Official Mohamed Bin Hammam has today reacted to news that he has been suspended along with Jack Warner until a full Fifa investigation has been conducted around bribery allegations both members are accused of.

Up until last week Mohamed Bin Hammam was running for presidential election in hope of succeeding current president Sepp Blatter, then Mohamed Bin Hammam stepped out of the race after these allegations were brought up by another senior official, USA’s Chuck Blazer.

He said in a statement late on Sunday: "I've been referred to the ethics committee based on evidence which was strong enough in views of the Fifa general secretary for such procedure.

"However the ethics committee in this meeting today did not find this evidence sufficient enough to convict me.

"Subsequently I should have been given the benefit of the doubt, but instead I've been banned from all football activities.

"I've been given the impression that the ethics committee is absolutely an independent committee. But in the press conference we have seen today the general secretary made clear that he is the one who has the influence in this committee.

"I'm very disappointed about the way the status of the proceeding has been presented at the media conference.

"I'm expecting this will continue. This is not how I understand fair play. I'm reserving all my rights."

Chuck Blazer Speaks Out On Fifa

FIFA Executive Committee Member Chuck Blazer has commented that he had no choice but to speak up after being presented with evidence of bribes, these involved Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner,.

ChucklBlazer spoke out and launched an investigation which resulted in two of football's most powerful figures being suspended pending a full inquiry on Sunday.



Blazer said: "I sat next to Mr Bin Hammam for 15 years in FIFA and have been general secretary of the [CONCACAF] confederation with Jack for 21 years so of course it was difficult. But what is more difficult is to ignore the fact that attempts were made to suborn members - it really wasn't a choice.


"I said to Jack, 'What are you doing? In 21 years we have never bought a vote, we have had elections and been in office all that time and never bought a vote'.

"I said, 'Now you have allowed this to happen here it completely changes the entire dynamic of the confederation'. Once you have done that you have let the genie of the bottle and for any issue that comes up, people will say, 'Okay, how much are you putting on the table?"'

Blazer now hopes that after this investigation Fifa will bring better practices and regulations into play.
He added: "I hope we have set a good example, we have expressed the fact that we don't tolerate the type of behaviour that was manifested by senior members.

"That's a message to all members that if you do something wrong it's going to be reported. That's how it will affect compliance. It is a chance for us to make a seminal difference to the way we operate.

"This is the implementation of a system that we put in just a few years ago.

"I'm just the official who fulfilled his obligation that when provided with the information about breaches of evidence by his members gathered together the facts and presented it to FIFA as required under the code of ethics."