FIFA plans to investigate it’s own president for his involvement in a bribery scandal – just a few days before re-election.
The bribery involves current president, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter.
Recall last December, FIFA decided the home for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments and caused a cascade of controversy. The games will be played in Russia and Qatar, respectively. But the soccer world made allegations of bribery and vote-trading
Now, in the few days before an election for the FIFA presidency the two main candidates are facing internal ethics investigations.
FIFA told The Associated Press that President Blatter is accused of turning the other way when bribes were being offered – and paid – to Caribbean voters. Blatter must submit an explanation by Saturday, he’ll be in Zurich on Sunday.
“I cannot comment on the proceedings that have been opened against me,” Blatter said in a statement. “The facts will speak for themselves.”
Blatter’s rival for re-election, Mohamed bin Hammam, made the request for an investigation.
According to reports, more than 20 delegates, who have votes in the election, were offered cash bribes at the May 10-11 conference – allegedly offered $40,000 in cash for “development projects” according to The Huffington Post.
Bin Hammam is claiming Blatter broke ethics rules by not reporting apparent corruption attempts.
This request coems at a time when Bin Hamman faces his own investigation by FIFA’s ethics committee. A U.S. FIFA executive committee member, Chuck Blazer, claims that senior FIFA executive Jack A. Warner accepted payments from Bin Hammam to back the Qatari bid.
The FIFA election is scheduled for next Wednesday.
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