bin hammal and qatar 2022 may be history

[Darvish11]

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/201...tleblower.html

sounds fishy

i still dont get why iranians dont want to have the world cup 30 minutes from their country. If we qualify we'd basically have home field. You are all really going to boycott and not give our team support because arabs call the persian gulf the arabian gulf? How bout you go to the stadium and make a giant banner reading "PERSIAN GULF FOREVER" or something. Would that be more productive or a little signature on pfdc while sitting at home?

[KC McElroy]

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/201...tleblower.html

sounds fishy

i still dont get why iranians dont want to have the world cup 30 minutes from their country. If we qualify we'd basically have home field. You are all really going to boycott and not give our team support because arabs call the persian gulf the arabian gulf? How bout you go to the stadium and make a giant banner reading "PERSIAN GULF FOREVER" or something. Would that be more productive or a little signature on pfdc while sitting at home?

The Persian Gulf issue aside, the qatar arabs cheated by bribing officials to temporarily get the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup.

[KC McElroy]

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?...2_aus_20111128

Australia football boss Frank Lowy suggested Monday that Qatar could yet be stripped of its right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup following their controversial awarding of the global showpiece.

Australia was humiliated to receive only one FIFA vote and was eliminated in the first round as Qatar went on to beat the US in the fourth round in Zurich last December.

The process of awarding Qatar the World Cup over the US and Australia, along with the handing of the 2018 tournament to Russia, has been widely criticised amid allegations of corruption within world football's governing body.

Lowy, 81, formally re-elected Monday as Football Federation Australia chairman (FFA) for another four years, indicated that world governing body FIFA could succumb to pressure from around the world over their bidding process.

"I don't know whether you recall when I came back from that fateful day (after losing the bid) and I said 'this is not the last word about awarding the World Cup'," Lowy told reporters.

"Well, it wasn't the last word and the last word hasn't been heard yet.

"Don't ask me to elaborate because I don't have a crystal ball … but the media all over the world is talking about that, the awarding particularly of '22, the state of the FIFA executive committee - all that stuff.

"It's not over. I don't exactly know where it will bounce. The only thing I know is it's not over yet."

While anger lingers over Australia's failed Aus$45 million ($43.7 million) bid, Lowy said FFA's focus in the coming years would be on strengthening the game domestically and successfully hosting the 2015 Asian Cup.

Lowy was appointed chairman at FFA's AGM in Sydney where Acting Asian Football Confederation President, Zhang Jilong, was a guest.

Zhang took charge in a caretaker capacity after Mohamed bin Hammam's ousting over bribery claims in June.

[KC McElroy]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/bin-ham...6381--sow.html

Mohamed bin Hammam said accusations he enriched his family and supporters while president of Asian soccer are politically motivated and that he plans to fight ''this clear abuse of power and process at the hand of FIFA.''

In a letter to 20 Asian associations, bin Hammam confirmed he made payments to soccer officials and others but said they came out of his own bank accounts and were driven by a desire to help those in need - including Zhang Jilong, the current AFC president who ordered the PriceWaterhouseCoopers audit that instigated the investigation by FIFA's ethics committee.

''Jilong was one of those who came to me for financial support and I helped him with a significant amount from my personal account,'' bin Hammam wrote. ''I will leave him to explain the circumstances of this to you if he wishes.''

The 63-year-old Qatari had a lifetime soccer ban overturned in court in July following allegations he bribed Caribbean voters when he challenged Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency.

The accusations in the PWC audit are the subject of separate investigations by the Asian Football Confederation and FIFA, but have been described by Bin Hammam as ''a repeat of what FIFA did immediately before I stood against Mr. Blatter in the presidential elections last year.''

''This, of course, is yet another attempt by Zurich through the infinite tools and power of FIFA to diminish and insult Asia's name by attacking me directly following the annulment of my previous FIFA ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport,'' bin Hammam wrote.

When contacted by The Associated Press, bin Hammam's U.S.-based lawyer Eugene Gulland confirmed Tuesday that the letter written on AFC letterhead was authentic.

Bin Hammam's letter cites the names of five people from Bangladesh, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan whom he says he helped, including two who have since died of cancer, one who had open-heart surgery, another for tuition fees for a FIFA program, and the family of a 16-year-old from Nepal who died while playing soccer.

''Let me declare that as a human being with the personal means to help and coming from a culture and society where this is seen as a duty, I am proud of these accusations, and I welcome them,'' bin Hammam wrote.

The audit accuses bin Hammam of receiving millions of dollars from individuals linked to AFC contracts and spending tens of thousands on items such as a honeymoon, dental work, haircuts and cash payments for his family. Payments are alleged to have been made to Asian, African and Caribbean soccer officials, including $250,000 to Jack Warner, the former longtime head of Caribbean soccer.

Tens of thousands of dollars were given to federation presidents and their relatives, the audit claimed, adding that most of it went into their personal bank accounts and none of it was for soccer-related expenses.

According to the audit, Gaurav Thapa, whose father heads the Nepalese federation, received $100,000 while Filipino soccer official Jose Mari Martinez was given $60,000 and had $11,226 in hospital expenses paid. Another $50,000 went to East Timorese soccer official Francisco Kalbuadi Lay, the audit found.

The audit also said that a Bangladesh soccer federation spokesman received $25,000 for tuition expenses and that its general secretary was given $20,000 to cover the cost of cancer treatment.

The head of the Nepal federation has acknowledged his son took a $100,000 loan from bin Hammam while Bangladesh soccer officials also confirmed the payments. But Martinez could not be reached for comment and Lay has refused to discuss the payments.

Bin Hammam seemed offended that the federations had been dragged into his own investigation.

''Was it necessary for those who are behind the PWC report to dig the graves of the dead to achieve their political goals? Was it necessary to NOT respect their deaths?'' bin Hammam wrote. ''Was it necessary to humiliate their children and families in the way I believe that the PWC report has done? Are these our Asian ethics?''

The audit said some commercial rights contracts were no-bid deals that were ''considerably undervalued,'' and that $14 million in total was paid from several companies to the AFC for the ''personal use of its president.''

Bin Hammam also attacked the AFC for hiring former FBI director Louis Freeh's agency in the probe despite its evidence in the case that was overturned being ''heavily criticized in the CAS judgment'' for relying on ''speculation rather than fact.''

''My legal team has filed an immediate response to the actions of the AFC and FIFA in relation to my latest politically motivated ban,'' he wrote. ''I will announce further steps very shortly.''

Bin Hammam, who helped Qatar win the right to stage the 2022 World Cup, was AFC president from 2002 until last year.

He is serving a 90-day ban so FIFA independent prosecutor Michael Garcia can examine the audit, ensuring Bin Hammam can't immediately return to office and denying him a seat at the FIFA executive committee when it next meets in Zurich on Sept. 27-28.

[Soroush-IK]

We've been saying this for yeaaaaaaaaaars that this piece of shit is corrupted to the bone, finally. Kesafat!

[iraniboy]

that sob sep blatter needs to be thrown in jail and never be allowed to see the light of day again.. everyone at fifa needs to be thrown in jail..these thieves are the reason why iran has never caught a lucky break in soccer before