FIFA set to investigate Caribbean meeting
Reuters - Tuesday 26 July 2011, 14:17
BERNE - FIFA are set to open a further
investigation into the meeting of Caribbean football officials
which resulted in former presidential candidate Mohamed Bin
Hammam being banned for life.
Football's governing body told Reuters that all Caribbean
Football Union (CFU) member associations had been given 48 hours
to "provide and report all relevant information in their
possession" about the meeting in Port of Spain on May 10-11
where Bin Hammam was alleged to have offered votes for cash.
"Following this 48 hour period, the ethics committee will be
asked to open the necessary ethics proceedings," FIFA told
Reuters in an email on Tuesday.
"Truthful and complete reporting will be considered in
mitigation by the ethics committee when deciding on potential
sanctions.
"Any person who has relevant information but does not come
forward during this 48 hour period will be subject to the full
range of sanctions."
The announcement came after ethics committee acting head
Petrus Damaseb, who announced Bin Hammam's ban on Saturday,
recommended investigations "into conduct of others who attended
the meeting of 10-11 May."
CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester were given
one-year bans for their role in the meeting while former
CONCACAF president Jack Warner, also placed under investigation,
resigned last month.
Under FIFA statutes, this led to the investigation against
Warner being dropped and the former FIFA powerbroker presumed
innocent.
Bin Hammam, the former head of the Asian Football
Confederation (AFC) and FIFA Executive Committee member, was
found guilty of breaking seven articles of FIFA's ethics code,
including bribery, after some federations, including Bahamas,
Puerto Rico and Suriname, said they were offered money at the
meeting.
He withdrew from the FIFA presidential election on May 29,
allowing Sepp Blatter to be re-elected unopposed for a fourth
term three days later.
A preliminary report by the ethics committee in June said:
"The comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming evidence permits
to conclude prima facie that the accused [Warner] has initiated
and arranged a special meeting of the CFU member associations
for Mr Bin Hammam."
"Furthermore on the occasion of this meeting it seems that
Mr Bin Hammam offered, at least indirectly and under the pledge
of secrecy, to each of the member associations an envelope
containing $40,000."
FIFA also rejected Bin Hammam's call to make the evidence
against him public.
"Mr Bin Hammam is in full possession of all evidence on his
case," said FIFA.
"As is usual practice, FIFA does not make any motivated
decision or any parts of the file public. This is confidential
information provided only to the parties involved."
It confirmed that Bin Hammam could only launch an appeal
after receiving the full written decision.
"An appeal is possible only once the motivated decision has
been notified to the relevant parties [within 10 days after
receiving the motivated decision]," said FIFA.
Bin Hammam has said he will appeal, describing the case
against him as bogus.
The CFU is a sub-division of CONCACAF, the North, Central
America and Caribbean Confederation, and has 30 affiliates, five
of which are not FIFA members.