The FIFA ethics committee suspended one-time presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner yesterday, while clearing FIFA president Sepp Blatter of corruption.
The committee, chaired by Namibian Petrus Damaseb, heard Bin Hammam, Warner and Blatter during a dramatic day that started with Bin Hammam withdrawing from the presidential election in which he was Blatter’s sole opponent.
“The FIFA Ethics Committee has reached its decisions,” said Blatter in a statement.
“I do not wish to comment in detail. But simply to say that I regret what has happened in the last few days and weeks.
“FIFA’s image has suffered a great deal as a result.”
Two members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, who were said to have colluded with Bin Hammam and Warner, were also suspended.
The FIFA presidential election will also go ahead as planned on June 1, announced FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke after the ethics committee revealed its findings yesterday.
“Both Bin Hammam and Warner were provisionally banned from future activity in football while a full investigation is carried out,” announced Damaseb.
“There, they can confront their accusers. The critical consideration is to ensure the investigation is not compromised and that is why we have chosen to provisionally suspend them even if we are not here to say whether they are guilty or not guilty.”
Bin Hammam, 62, Warner and the two CFU officials had been summoned to the ethics committee to answer corruption allegations but the CFU pair failed to appear despite FIFA offering to fly them in at their own expense.
Bin Hammam, who was hugely influential for Qatar’s surprising victory in winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup, and Warner were targeted after Chuck Blazer, general secretary of regional football body CONCACAF, reported possible misdeeds during a May 10 and 11 meeting in Trinidad.
Bin Hammam and Warner were accused of offering €28,000 in cash gifts to national associations at the Trinidad conference in return for pro-Bin Hammam votes in the presidential election.
Blatter had been summoned to appear before the ethics committee to answer claims that Warner had told him in advance of alleged payments made at the meeting.
He strongly denied that and his version of events was accepted by the ethics committee.
According to Damaseb, Blatter had not been informed of what had occurred at the meeting, but that Warner had asked his advice ahead of it and Blatter replied that he should not hold such a meeting with the CFU.