Suspended official Adamu denies wrongdoing
Reuters - Friday 22 October 2010, 13:36
BERNE, Oct 22 (Reuters) - FIFA executive committee member
Amos Adamu, suspended on suspicion of selling his vote in the
contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals, has denied
wrongdoing and said investigations would show him to be a
credible person.
Nigerian Adamu has been provisionally suspended while FIFA's
ethics committee probes allegations that he and Oceania Football
Confederation (OFC) president Reynald Temarii offered to sell
their votes when approached by Sunday Times journalists posing
as lobbyists for an American consortium.
Fellow executive committee member Temarii has also been
suspended in one of the biggest controversies to have rocked football's governing body.
"The ethics committee will investigate this and I am very
happy about it because this will enable the whole world to know
the truth of the matter," Adamu told the BBC in an interview.
"As far as I am concerned, I am not guilty of what they are
saying, but the ethics committee is a committee that is credible
and FIFA is a credible organisation.
"I am sure that the whole truth will come out. I welcome
it," added Adamu, a former director general of Nigeria's
national sports commission.
The newspaper report said Adamu was filmed asking for
500,000 poundsfor a personal project and that
Tahitian Temari asked an undercover reporter in Auckland for
NZ$3 million ($2.27 million) to fund a sports academy at the
OFC's headquarters.
DECEMBER DECISION
Only the 24 members of FIFA's executive committee vote on
the World Cup hosts. The decision is due to be made on December 2 in
Zurich.
"I'm very, very confident because what was pushed to the
public is not a true reflection of what really transpired
between me and the journalists," said Adamu, who is banned from
all football-related activities while the case is investigated
and admitted he was not supposed to comment on it.
"I believe in the credibility of FIFA and the FIFA president
(Sepp Blatter), I know that my reputation is intact and the
investigation will prove it.
"I'm sure that by the time I come out of this, they will see
that I'm a credible person; I believe this investigation will
prove it."
Adamu, an executive committee member since 2006, said he did
not believe that Blatter was referring to him when the FIFA
president said that the world was full of devils, some of whom
could be found in football.
"I'm sure when he makes statements he knows what he's
talking about. Let's leave it at this," said the former
university lecturer.
"This committee will do a thorough job and the whole truth
will come out."
England and Russia are bidding to host the 2018 World Cup
along with a joint bid from Spain and Portugal while Japan,
South Korea, Qatar, United States and Australia are candidates
for 2022.