bin hammal and qatar 2022 may be history

[KC McElroy]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/articl...fc-boss-hammam

[KC McElroy]

Goodbye shotor 2022.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...24566/?cc=5901

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has confirmed he sent suspended vice-president Jack Warner an email stating the 2022 World Cup in Qatar had been "bought".

Warner made public an email from Valcke that claimed Mohamed Bin Hammam - who has also been suspended on bribery charges - had bought the World Cup and stated that he could not understand his motivation for challenging Sepp Blatter in the FIFA presidential elections. He has since withdrawn from the race.

The email read: "For MBH [Bin Hammam], I never understood why he was running. If really he thought he had a chance or just being an extreme way to express how much he does not like anymore JSB [Blatter]. Or he thought you can buy FIFA as they bought the WC."

Valcke, speaking from Zurich, has now confirmed that the email was genuine but said that its contents were private.

"It was a private email and we will discuss it," he said. "He sent me an email asking if I want that [Bin Hammam to run], he said that I should ask Bin Hammam to pull out."

Valcke also said that Warner had not published the email in its entirety and dismissed the suggestions that he had influenced the ethics committee's decision to ban Warner and Bin Hammam.

Valcke said: "The first time I met the chairman of the ethics committee was yesterday at 5'o'clock before we went to the press conference. I had no contact at all with anyone."

In light of Valcke's claim, Bin Hammam has now spoken to the press to deny Qatar bought the World Cup.

"You would have to ask Jerome Valcke what he was thinking," he told BBC Sport. "I don't know why he has said that. If I was paying money for Qatar, you also have to ask the 13 people who voted for Qatar."

Asked if the claim was true, he denied it, saying: "What do you think?"

Warner had also claimed that Blatter had made a $1 million payment to the CONCACAF federation without the finance committee's authorisation and that UEFA president Michel Platini was "annoyed".

However, asked about the situation, Platini said: "It's not like that. It was a joke with me and Mr Blatter.

"He can give the projects that he wants to give. I joke - I said: 'But, Sepp, this was not accepted by the committee' - but he can give many projects to many national associations and we will confirm in the GOAL project after.

"In many Congresses for many, many years the president can give one or two projects to national associations - he has his own budget and he can give to one confederation and then it has to be approved of course by the executive committee next time."

Platini said he could not rule out the possibility that there would be a repeat of the 1999 FIFA Congress, when the Asian members walked out in a protest over the number of World Cup places.

He added: "I don't know what will happen - there are some meetings of the confederations in the next few days, I don't know what will happen. In '99 Asia left, I don't know if they will do that again. I think the election will go ahead but I don't know."

[arash123]

I just saw it on ESPN Bottomline. YAYYY

[KC McElroy]

Reconsider Qatar World Cup football- German chief

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...28447add10.261

The head of Germany's football federation, Theo Zwanziger, called on Wednesday for FIFA to re-examine the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar over bribery allegations.

"I think there is a significant degree of suspicion that one cannot just dismiss," Zwanziger told ZDF public television when asked about calls for the sport's world governing body to take away the event from Qatar.

"And that is why I reckon that the awarding of this World Cup must be re-examined with regard to these concerns," he said.

"I do not want to comment on how that might happen until I know more about the matter. I am an outsider and not a member of the executive committee," the DFB president added.

Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers on Monday "categorically denied" any wrongdoing, after claims by suspended FIFA vice-president Jack Warner that the Arab country "bought" the world's biggest sports extravaganza.

FIFA has been rocked by an unprecedented wave of corruption revelations of late stemming from the race to host the 2018 and 2022 editions of the World Cup which Russia and Qatar won in December.

Two FIFA officials were suspended after a newspaper sting found they offered to sell their votes, while England's former 2018 bid chief said he witnessed "improper and unethical" behaviour by four FIFA voters, including Warner.

Asian football chief Mohamed bin Hammam, seen as highly influential in Qatar's successful bid, and officials from the tiny, resource-rich country have strongly denied claims that large bribes were paid to secure its shock victory.

Despite the crisis, embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who has led the body since 1998, is favourite to be re-elected unopposed for a fourth term Wednesday after officials rejected an English bid to postpone the ballot.

Asked about Blatter, now the sole candidate in the election, Zwanziger said he would vote for him because "there is no other alternative", but he called for a secret ballot so the vote would be "honest".

Blatter "is surely not the man of the future", Zwanziger acknowledged, adding that "what has happened over the last few weeks is a scandal".

But he noted, "I cannot not vote for him on the basis of suspicions."

"What good would it do to postpone the vote, like the English federation called for?" Zwanziger asked, adding that FIFA could not be left "without a leader".

Bin Hammam ended his bid to unseat Blatter Sunday just hours before being suspended amid bribery claims.

Addressing delegates on the first full session of FIFA's 61st congress, Blatter said Wednesday the governing body must reform from within as it seeks to clean up its image after the damaging graft revelations.

"I am certain that you will follow me in the idea that we can settle all the problems from within FIFA, by giving us the right instruments or strengthening what we already have," Blatter said.

[P.Nima]

Qatar 2022 is in big danger, even if it takes place, many fans will probably boycott it. There will probably only be arabs, pakistanis and africans in half empty stadiums.

Also, if they find Bin Hamoom guilty, HE MUST be kicked out of AFC, we've suffered enough with this asshole.
I would like the next president of AFC to be Japanese, as they are least likely to bribe people.

[Nokhodi]

Guys, have you just started following this stuff?
ENTIRE blocks in FIFA are corrupt. CONMEBOL, the Caribbean nations of CONCACAF and most of CAF are well known for taking bribes. The entire system is corrupt.
Its not just about Bin Hammam and Blatter, but pretty much anyone who can vote for hosting tournaments.

[KC McElroy]

Guys, have you just started following this stuff?
ENTIRE blocks in FIFA are corrupt. CONMEBOL, the Caribbean nations of CONCACAF and most of CAF are well known for taking bribes. The entire system is corrupt.
Its not just about Bin Hammam and Blatter, but pretty much anyone who can vote for hosting tournaments.

Yeah but this time gandesh dareh dar miad.
People weren't happy with qatar to begin with so this is their excuse to bring this stuff to the surface and relocate the World Cup.

[KC McElroy]

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news;...rld_cup_060111

The United States could still host the 2022 World Cup after soccer’s governing body continued to be plagued by a deep-rooted bribery scandal that has rocked the sport to its core.

The American bid to host the tournament ended in disappointment in December, when members of governing body FIFA’s executive committee made the shocking decision to award the event to Qatar, a tiny Arab state with a population of fewer than two million people.

However, a storm of controversy has erupted around FIFA in the past week, reaching a head when it was revealed that general secretary Jerome Valcke wrote in an email that Qatar had “bought the World Cup.”

Soccer fans in the States may get to help host the 2022 World Cup after all.

Suspicions about how Qatar had gathered the necessary support and outwitted the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea immediately flared up, and were raised again in May when Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper presented evidence that claimed to show bribes had been paid in exchange for votes.

Influential FIFA member Theo Zwanziger, president of the German Football Federation, demanded on Wednesday that Qatar be stripped of its hosting rights pending a full investigation – and that a new vote should be taken if any corrupt activity is unearthed.

“There is a certain degree of suspicion that one cannot sweep aside,” Zwanziger told the BBC. “I must expect that awarding this World Cup under these conditions needs to be examined anew.”

The scandal has intensified over the past week as FIFA president Sepp Blatter survived a fraught battle to win another four-year term in office but only after his lone rival, Qatar’s Mohamed bin Hammam, was suspended pending an investigation into alleged corrupt payments made to soccer officials in the Caribbean.

FIFA vice president Jack Warner was also suspended in connection with the same matter but then came out fighting, accusing Blatter himself of making unauthorized cash payments and gifts of computers to officials associated with CONCACAF, the North American and Caribbean confederation of which the United States is a part.

While Blatter remains in control, he was forced to announce widespread changes to appease FIFA’s sponsors and a furious worldwide soccer public. From now on, each of FIFA’s 208 members will receive a vote on where future World Cups will be held, rather than a select 24-man executive committee.

Significantly, the full FIFA Congress will also be given power to elect members of the governing body’s Ethics Committee, which oversees FIFA conduct and would ultimately be responsible for any decision to order a fresh vote on the 2022 World Cup. That move, in particular, will give U.S. Soccer great hope and cause grave concern in the Qatar camp.

The United States put up a strong challenge to host the 2022 tournament, reaching the final round of voting before Qatar prevailed 14-8. If a revote was ordered, the American federation would be a strong favorite, with Australia its primary challenger.

The political shenanigans have naturally gained far greater media coverage in countries other than the United States, where soccer is more ingrained in the public psyche. But if the sport’s hour of darkness shakes out into a satisfactory conclusion, there may be no bigger winner than the United States.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

.Reconsider Qatar World Cup football- German chief
The head of Germany's football federation, Theo Zwanziger, called on Wednesday for FIFA to re-examine the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar over bribery allegations.

Theo Zwanziger Dooset Darim!!!

[HuSsAiN]

Guys, have you just started following this stuff?
ENTIRE blocks in FIFA are corrupt. CONMEBOL, the Caribbean nations of CONCACAF and most of CAF are well known for taking bribes. The entire system is corrupt.
Its not just about Bin Hammam and Blatter, but pretty much anyone who can vote for hosting tournaments.

Exactly.

It's so obvious why Tunisia and Egypt won the african nations of cup in 2004 and 2006 - alot of bribes and money was involved.

[Pedram123]

Football in general is corrupt.
It's obvious though, wherever there's money involved there is corruption.

[soniq]

Wikipedia was edited (shortly removed) the day FIFA announced Qatar was going to host a World Cup: kinda funny

[Kaveh Ahangar]

Qatar is basically the phallus of the Arabian peninsula.
Don't simpy take my word for it, take a look at a map and you'll see.

[KC McElroy]

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?...a-briberyprobe

FIFA’s investigators have gathered further evidence of bribery by suspended executive Mohamed bin Hammam during his campaign to become president of world football’s governing body, a person familiar with the case said Wednesday.

The corruption report—compiled by former FBI agents—was sent to bin Hammam last week, and FIFA has summoned the suspended head of Asian football to a full ethics committee hearing on July 22.

Bin Hammam and two Caribbean football officials are accused of involvement in a plot to bribe executives in the Caribbean ahead of the Qatari’s challenge to topple FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Nine of the 24 Caribbean Football Union members who attended a meeting in Trinidad in May have now admitted to ex-FBI director Louis Freeh that they were offered or accepted $40,000 payments from bin Hammam, a person familiar with the case told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity as it is a confidential report.

An initial report last month by FIFA’s ethics committee concluded there was “compelling” evidence that bin Hammam and then-CONCACAF President Jack Warner conspired to bribe voters.

Allegations against Warner were dropped when he resigned from football last month, but Freeh’s report—the result of interviews last month—appears to uncover fresh evidence against the Trinidad native, who is now exempt from any possible sanctions.

CFU members told Freeh’s team that the federation wasn’t financially able to distribute any money itself and that it previously only wire-transferred funds.

The CFU’s financial report, which was presented at the start of the year, showed that the organization had debts of $242,000 and owed $376,000 to Warner from a loan deal.

Bin Hammam, who faces a life ban from football if found guilty, declined to disclose bank account records and other financial details to Freeh’s investigation team, the person said.

Two other FIFA executive committee members—Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka and Worawi Makudi of Thailand—have admitted to attending the May 10-11 meeting, the person said.

But there is no evidence they were paid by bin Hammam or knew of the payments to CFU members during the campaign visit.

Four CFU nations have already given evidence to support the initial corruption claims gathered by American FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer. They are the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Puerto Rico, Surinam, Grenada, Aruba and Curacao have cooperated with the investigation and backed up the allegations since the initial ethics hearing met on May 29.

Cuba was the only CFU member of the 25 that did not have a representative at the Trinidad meeting attended by bin Hammam.

CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester have also been accused of being involved in the attempt to bribe voters and are currently suspended.

Details of Freeh’s report emerged after FIFA announced Wednesday that its ethics panel, chaired by Namibian judge Petrus Damaseb, will hear all three cases on July 22 and begin its deliberations the next day.

“The three officials have received the report on the investigations conducted by the ethics committee since May 29 and have been invited to present their position in writing prior to the meeting,” FIFA said in a statement.

“The parties, as well as the ethics committee, also have the opportunity to call on potential witnesses.

FIFA has not released details of Freeh’s report or the full findings of the May 29 meeting of the ethics committee, which were obtained by The AP last month.

That initial panel found “comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming evidence” that Warner arranged the meeting specifically to enable corruption. It was “impossible” to think Warner was unaware of the payments and their intention to influence how CFU members voted.

Bin Hammam allegedly offered cash “at least indirectly and under the pledge of secrecy” intended to influence them to back him against Blatter, the report said.

The scandal emerged one week before the FIFA election on June 1, and bin Hammam, Warner and the CFU staffers were then provisionally suspended by the ethics panel pending a full inquiry. All have denied wrongdoing.

Bin Hammam withdrew his candidacy three days before the poll, leaving Blatter clear to be elected unopposed at the FIFA congress for a fourth four-year term as the most powerful man in world football.

[persepolisfan]

i pray that Qatar will get banned for life from Fifa, and not host the WC.