FIFA executives suspended
Screen shot from the Press Conference at FIFA's headquarters in Zurich on 29 May following the FIFA Ethics Committee hearing
The corruption charges against two of FIFA’s absolute top officials, Jack Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam, were found to be so serious and well documented that the FIFA Ethics Committee led by Namibian Petrus Damaseb on Sunday decided to give the two FIFA ExCo Members a preliminary 30 days suspension.
This leaves Sepp Blatter without any opposition in the in the Presidential election scheduled to take place during the FIFA Congress on Wednesday. Blatter’s only opponent, Qatari Bin Hammam, dicided to withdraw from the race hours before the Ethics Committee hearing this weekend.
According to the prosecutors, Bin Hammam, who is also President of The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), had offered each of the 25 Caribbean Football Union associations US$ 40.000 in bribes for their votes in the presidential race. This is supposed to have taken place in during a meeting on May 10-11 and in agreement with Jack Warner, FIFA Vice President and CONCACAF President.
The allegations of bribery were reported to FIFA by US FIFA ExCo Member Chuck Blazer and found to be substantial enough for the Ethics Committee to launch a full scale investigation into the matter. This investigation will draw on the help from out side of FIFA as well in the search for clarification.
Until the investigation is finished, the two ExCo Members along with two employees from the Carribbean Football Union have been suspended from all football related activities.
Blatter, who had also been summoned to the hearing before the Ethics Committee on Sunday, was cleared. Bin Hammam had accused Blatter of not having acted appropriately on information about corruption. The FIFA Ethics Committee rejected these accusations as groundless.
FIFA has announced a Press Conference with Sepp Blatter later today.
See the stream from the Press Conference following the FIFA Ethics Committee hearing: http://streamstudio.world-television.com/CCUIv3/frameset.aspx?ticket=645-676-9890&target=en-default-&status=ondemand&browser=ns-0-0-0-10-0&stream=flash-video-300