Suspended Fifa vice-president Jack Warner has made public an e-mail that claims Mohamed Bin Hammam “bought” the 2022 World Cup finals for Qatar.
Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke admitted he sent the e-mail, which also questioned why Asian football boss Bin Hammam was running for Fifa president.
Valcke wrote: “[Hammam] thought you can buy Fifa as they bought the World Cup.”
The Qatar 2022 World Cup bid team has issued a statement “categorically denying any wrong-doing” over the bid.
“We are urgently seeking clarification from Fifa about the statement from their General Secretary,” said Qatar officials in a statement.
“In the meantime we are taking legal advice to consider our options.”
Valcke stressed that his e-mail to Warner was intended to remain “private” and pointed out that Warner had only published selected parts of it.
“He [Warner] sent me an email asking if I want that [Bin Hammam to run for Fifa president], he said that I should ask Bin Hammam to pull out,” Valcke added.
Bin Hammam responded by telling BBC Sport today: “I don’t know why he [Valcke] has said that.”
The Qatari added: “If I was paying money for Qatar you also have to ask the 13 people who voted for Qatar.”
Asked whether Valcke’s allegation was true he said: “What do you think?”
Valcke also denied that he had influenced Fifa’s ethics committee, whichfifa suspended Warner and Bin Hamman on Sunday over separate allegations of bribery, pending further investigation.
He stated: “The first time I met the chairman of the ethics committee was yesterday [Sunday] before we went to the press conference. I had no contact at all with anyone.”
Bin Hammam was suspended a matter of hours after withdrawing from the Fifa presidential race on Sunday morning.
His decision leaves 75-year-old incumbent Sepp Blatter, who is seeking a fourth term in charge of the organisation he has run unopposed since 1998, as the only man running for the office. Blatter is due to hold a news conference on Monday at 1700 BST.
Fifa has said its election will go ahead, as scheduled, on Wednesday.
Warner, who is president of the North, Central American and Caribbean confederation (Concacaf), has reacted angrily to the allegations of bribery and the Fifa ethics committee’s decision to suspend him.
The Trinidad and Tobago government minister raged: “I look on the suspension as the worst form of justice by any sporting organisation.
“They came premeditated, they weren’t prepared to listen, they were hand-picked to do a task and they did just that.
“The guys were hand-picked by Blatter. A kangaroo court would be a decent thing to say.”
Warner showed the e-mail to television crews and added: “You don’t have to believe me, you don’t have to like me, nobody has to eat with me, drink with me or sleep with me but … take the truth when you see it.”
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