MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FIFA ethics committee confirms “convincing and overwhelming” evidence of corruption

CONCACAF president and FIFA Vice-president Jack Warner resigned

FIFA's ethics committee found “comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming” evidence that Mohamed bin Hammam and Jack Warner were involved in attempted bribery, according to the preliminary report that led to the suspension of the two officials.

Trinidadian Warner resigned as a FIFA vice-president and president of CONCACAF on Monday, prompting the sport's governing body to drop an investigation into bribery allegations against him and leaving “a presumption of innocence”.

The ethics committee's report, compiled by Namibian judge Petrus Damuseb last month, said there was a “compelling case” that Bin Hammam was engaged in an act of bribery and that Warner was an accessory.

The ethics committee acted on that evidence by suspending the pair. Qatari Bin Hammam had by then pulled out of FIFA's presidential campaign, leaving Sepp Blatter to win a fourth term unopposed.

Bin Hammam said on Wednesday he had done nothing wrong while Warner, who also denied any wrongdoing, hit out at the way the document had been leaked to the media.

FIFA said it had no comment on the report. The claims centre on a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) in Trinidad in May.

”The comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming evidence permits to conclude prima facie that the accused (Warner) has initiated and arranged a special meeting of the CFU member associations for Mr Bin Hammam,“ the report says.

”Furthermore on the occasion of this meeting it seems that Mr Bin Hammam offered, at least indirectly and under the pledge of secrecy, to each of the member associations an envelope containing 40.0000 US dollars.