SUSPENDED?FIFA?vice-president Austin “Jack” Warner has made it clear that Sepp Blatter, who yesterday denied football’s governing body is in crisis while it faces the worst scandal in its 107-year history, must be stopped.
As Blatter moved closer to a fourth presidential term as head of the world’s most popular sport with his only challenger, Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar, provisionally suspended along with Warner due to bribery allegations, he said the two had done “great damage” to football as the scandal spread to the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
During an impromptu news conference at an overcrowded FIFA headquarters ahead of tomorrow’s election, an intense Blatter gave staccato answers to difficult questions and lectured journalists to behave with “respect” and “elegance” when they queried his 13-year rule.
Blatter ended another turbulent day for FIFA?by vowing to restore order to his body while dismissing evidence that his second in command had suggested Qatar “bought” the right to host the 2022 World Cup.
It came a day after bin Hammam and Warner were sidelined by an ethics committee over allegations that Caribbean football associations were paid $40 000 each to back bin Hammam’s now-abandoned presidential bid.
“Crisis? What is a crisis? Football is not in a crisis,” Blatter said during a spirited and sometimes raucous news conference. “We are not in a crisis, we are only in some difficulties and these difficulties will be solved — and they will be solved inside this family.”
To make matters worse, Blatter failed to come out in defence of FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, who admitted he had written an email to Warner saying bin Hammam might have been thinking that “you can buy FIFA as they bought the WC”.
Valcke attempted to clarify his remarks yesterday, saying that by using the word “bought” he meant that Qatar was using the “financial strength” of an energy-rich nation to lobby for backing, but did not mean to claim any unethical behavior on its part.
Bin Hammam said he would appeal his provisional suspension and published his submission to the ethics committee on his personal website. In it, he acknowledged that he provided $360 000 for “travel and accommodations” of the 25 Caribbean Football Union members attending a May 10-11 extraordinary meeting in Warner’s native Trinidad.
FIFA’s gravest corruption crisis was sparked by a file of evidence submitted by Chuck Blazer, the American general secretary of CONCACAF and a longtime FIFA executive panel member.
But Warner lashed out at Blatter, whom he had backed through thick and thin for almost 30 years, saying he had been the victim of a kangaroo court and expanded on earlier statements regarding a $1 million offer by Blatter to delegates of CONCACAF, the North, Central American and Caribbean confederation.
“Blatter has to be stopped, and if he believes that he has got Blazer as his ally . . . Blazer is an employee.”
Blazer, who has been Warner’s secretary general at CONCACAF for 21 years, sparked the ethics hearing with a report on a Caribbean Football Union meeting earlier this month in which he said there had been possible violations of the FIFA code of ethics including “bribery allegations”.
“Mr Bin Hammam never gave any money to the countries of the Caribbean,” he said. “Bin Hammam wired $260 000 to pay for accommodation, air fares, this is the norm,” said Warner, who is regarded as a FIFA powerbroker and controls the 35 CONCACAF votes at the Congress which elects the FIFA president.
Warner also poured scorn on the ethics committee.
“They came premeditated, they weren’t prepared to listen, they were hand-picked to do a task and they did just that,” he added. (AP/CMC/EZS)
