The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
| Bin Hammam faces ethics case, denies wrongdoing Posted: 25 May 2011 08:55 AM PDT
FIFA said today it had begun ethical proceedings against Bin Hammam, the Qatari head of the Asian Football Confederation, along with CONCACAF president Jack Warner and two other officials. All four have been summoned to appear before FIFA's ethics committee on Sunday, three days before the vote for the most powerful job in world soccer, in response to a report from Chuck Blazer, CONCACAF's general secretary and another executive committee member. FIFA said Blazer's report, which included "bribery allegations", referred to a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) meeting which was attended by Warner and Bin Hammam on May 10/11 and was linked to the election campaign. Bin Hammam strongly denied any wrongdoing and said he was confident he would still be allowed to stand in the June 1 vote, when he is the only challenger to Blatter. "This has been a difficult and painful day for me today," Bin Hammam said in a statement. "But, if there is even the slightest justice in the world, these allegations will vanish in the wind. "This move is little more than a tactic being used by those who have no confidence in their own ability to emerge successfully from the FIFA presidential election. "Here I completely deny any allegations of wrongdoing either intentionally or unknowingly while I was in the Caribbean. "I am confident that there is no charge to answer and that I will be free to stand in the FIFA presidential election on June 1 as originally planned." The meeting referred to by FIFA was organised so Bin Hammam could state his election case to delegates. He had been unable to attend the CONCACAF Congress in Miami on May 3 after being denied a visa for the United States. Bin Hammam has used the campaign to call for reform at FIFA, which has been mired in claims of corruption surrounding last year's vote to choose hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Unlike last year's scandal, in which two executive committee members were banned following investigations by the Sunday Times newspaper, the allegations came from within FIFA for the first time. CONCACAF, the North and Central America and Caribbean Confederation, holds 35 of the 208 votes at the FIFA Congress which will choose between Bin Hamman and incumbent President Blatter. Warner has always been regarded as a staunch Blatter supporter but said his confederation had not yet chosen who it would back this time. FIFA would not comment on whether the election might now be postponed. Spokesmen for Blatter and CONCACAF also said they would not comment. "On May 24, FIFA executive committee member and CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer reported to FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke possible violations of the FIFA code of ethics allegedly committed by officials," FIFA said in a statement. "In view of the facts alleged in this report, which include bribery allegations, Jerome Valcke requested the FIFA Ethics Committee to open ethics proceedings." FIFA added that the ethics committee would be headed by Namibia's Petrus Damaseb as its usual chairman Claudio Sulser shares the same nationality as Swiss Blatter. CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester have also been asked to attend the ethics committee hearing. Allegations of corruption and lack of transparency have dogged FIFA since the campaign for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights, won by Russia and Qatar respectively. Earlier this month, a British parliamentary inquiry into why England failed to secure the 2018 finals was told by member of parliament Damian Collins there was evidence from the Sunday Times newspaper that Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast were paid by Qatar. Qatar have categorically denied the allegations as have Hayatou and Anouma. Blatter, standing for a fourth term in the post he has held since 1998, already has the support of Europe, Africa, South America and Oceania. – Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Cricket: Strauss urges England to focus on No.1 ranking Posted: 25 May 2011 07:56 AM PDT  England's captain Andrew Strauss hits out during a training session before Thursday's first cricket test match against Sri Lanka at Swalec Stadium in Cardiff, Wales May 25, 2011. – Reuters pic England face Sri Lanka in the first match of a three-test series starting tomorrow before taking on India, test cricket's number one-ranked team, and Strauss said they should not dwell on the 3-1 victory in Australia. "This is the start of a new cycle in a way," Strauss told reporters. "It's the start of a very busy and difficult summer for us and it is an opportunity for us to make a step forward to becoming number one in the world. "That excites us and I think for us to be thinking too much back to what happened in Sydney at this stage is not helpful. It is the only way we can look at it." Strauss said England should learn from what went well in Australia but recognise that they have new targets. "We achieved quite an important goal for us as a side to win out there in Australia but our goals now have turned towards this summer and beyond," he said. Although Sri Lanka's interim coach Stuart Law has said that England have played the best test cricket over the last 18 months, Strauss said more consistency was needed. "We are some way off (number one) and it might take us a long time to get there and certainly if we drift into the summer and don't hit top gear straight away that could seem like a long way off," Strauss added. "The motivation for us now is to take the next step. I will be very disappointed if any of the players are resting on laurels or anything like that. We need to hit ground running – there is no doubt about that." Sri Lanka said they would await the results of a fitness test on fast bowler Dilhara Fernando before deciding their final team. Suranga Lakmal is on standby. New captain Tillakeratne Dilshan said Sri Lanka were looking forward to playing a first test match outside of Asia in more than three years, rather than fearing the early season conditions. They won their two warm-up matches against Middlesex and England Lions. "It's not easy playing here early summer but as cricketers we have to take on this challenge even though we haven't played outside home (Asia) for a long time," Dilshan told reporters. "The last series (2006) we drew here and we have had good preparations this time. The last two matches we have played well in the bowling and batting departments." Teams: England (probable): Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Morgan, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Tremlett. Sri Lanka (from): Paranavitana, Dilshan, Sangakkara, M. Jayawardene, Samaraweera, P. Jayawardene, Maharoof, Perera, Herath, Fernando, Welegedera, Lakmal. – Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
ZURICH, May 25 – Mohamed bin Hammam will face an ethics investigation just days before he is due to challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency after a report from within the organisation's executive committee alleged possible bribery.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Sports To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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