Fifa’s investigation into Mohamed bin Hammam has uncovered substantial extra evidence that the Executive Committee member arranged for cash gifts to be given to officials during his campaign for president, it has been claimed.
The latest report from football’s world governing body’s ethics committee claims that nine associations in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) have told Fifa’s investigators that they were offered or accepted cash gifts of $40,000 (about £25,000) at a special meeting bin Hammam arranged with 25 CFU members in Trinidad on May 10 and 11.
The investigation by ex-FBI director Louis Freeh ended last week, and the report by Robert Torres, the judge heading the ethics committee probe, has been sent to bin Hammam ahead of a hearing in Zurich on July 22 and 23. If found guilty of the charge of bribery he faces, the Qatari could face a life ban. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
Bin Hammam and fellow ExCo member Jack Warner were provisionally suspended on May 29. Warner is no longer under investigation after his resignation from football-related activities.
The ethics committee will also hear the cases of Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, two CFU officials alleged to have been involvement in making the payments.
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A previous report from the ethics committee said that there was “comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming evidence” of a prima facie case that bin Hammam had paid or offered the cash - based on statements given by officials belonging to four associations: the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands. A total of $1 million is alleged to have been paid out.
A further five associations - Puerto Rico, Surinam, Grenada, Aruba and Curacao - have since told investigators that they too were offered or given money - the cash was in brown envelopes - at the meeting, or saw evidence of that happening.
They have also corroborated statements by four previous witnesses that Warner told the CFU delegates on May 11 that the money had been provided by Bin Hammam.
The report also makes clear that the CFU did not have the finances available to make the payments to the member associations. The CFU’s financial statement for the end of 2010 reveals it had net debts of 242,000 US dollars, including 376,000 US dollars owed to Warner - who had been the CFU president - for a loan he made to the organisation.
The power struggle to claim the Fifa vice-presidency vacated by Warner took another twist after the world governing body again banned Lisle Austin from football-related activities.
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Austin went to court in the Bahamas last week to force through his appointment as Warner’s successor as president of the Concacaf confederation of countries from north and central America and the Caribbean - a position which includes being a Fifa vice-president.
Austin, from Barbados, had been banned by Concacaf and Fifa but the 75-year-old, an ally of Warner’s, emerged from the court claiming victory.
But Fifa’s disciplinary committee have now taken further action against him - specifically for his decision to go to the civil courts rather than the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Fifa statutes say “recourse to ordinary courts of law is prohibited unless specifically provided for in the Fifa regulations”.