Hammam charged with offering bribes for buying votes

Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam, who is challenging Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency next week, has been accused of offering up to 40,000 dollars in exchange for votes during a football summit in the West Indies.

The bribes are alleged to have been offered to members of the Caribbean Football Union at a meeting organised by Jack Warner, one of the men accused by FA chairman Lord Triesman of ''improper and unethical behaviour in the 2018 World Cup bidding process''.

Bin Hammam, however, blamed Blatter for making attempts to discredit him ahead of next week's election, and instead demanded that an investigation be launched against him over corruption.u00a0

"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. This has been a difficult and painful day for me. But if there is even the slightest justice in the world, these allegations will vanish in the wind," he said.

Meanwhile, British MP Damian Collins has demanded FIFA to abandon the election over the bribery scandal.

Talking about Bin Hammam's claims, the Daily Mail quoted Collins, as saying: "As the recent accusations also mention incumbent FIFA president Joseph Blatter, Mohamed Bin Hammam has requested that the investigation be extended to include Blatter."

He further named two other FIFA members in Parliament, who had allegedly received bribes from Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid.

"FIFA need to have a proper independent investigation and the timetable does not allow this to happen before next week. If Bin Hammam is suspended, it would be unacceptable for the election to simply become a shoo-in for Sepp Blatter. There must be a new election with new candidates allowed to come forward," Collins added.

Meanwhile, Concacaf General Secretary Chuck Blazer alleged that ''violations were committed under the FIFA code of ethics in relation to the upcoming FIFA presidential election'' - in other words cash for votes.

"In view of the facts alleged in this report, which include bribery allegations, FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke has requested the FIFA ethics committee to open proceedings.'' A FIFA statement said.