BFA bosses blew lid on FIFA cash for votes scandal
Photos
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In this May 10, 2011 file picture Mohamed bin Hammam, right, of Qatar, chief of the Asian Football Confederation, is accompanied by FIFA Vice President Austin Jack Warner, of Trinidad & Tobago, during a meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
The Bermuda Football Association (BFA) have been named as one of the “whistleblowers” that helped lift the lid on the worst corruption scandal to blight the sport's world governing body FIFA.
It's alleged that Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner offered up to $1 million in cash bribes to Caribbean football officials for their votes in this week's FIFA presidential election.
Hammam, who has ended his campaign to unseat FIFA president Sepp Blatter, was yesterday temporarily suspended from any football-related activity along with Jack Warner, president of the Concacaf region.
The BFA's second-vice president Gregory Grimes and general secretary David Sabir attended the Caribbean Football Union's (CFU) special summit earlier this month where it's alleged the cash offerings were made.
In yesterday's Sunday Times it was reported that Bermuda was one of the delegates to refuse the cash.
“Not everyone had taken the money. Members from at least five football associations, the Bahamas, Bermuda and Cayman Islands, turned it down,” read the article.
“It is believed to be a delegate from one of these countries that decided to report the matter to Blatter.”
The Sunday Telegraph also yesterday reported that Bermuda was one of the whistleblowers who helped expose the cash-for-votes scandal.
Their article read: “The whistle-blowers were led by Bahamas FA president Anton Sealey, whose claims are backed by statements from the Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands FAs.”
Blatter has been cleared of any breach of FIFA's statutes following an emergency sitting of the independent ethics committee, freeing him to stand unopposed for a fourth term in charge of FIFA.
It's claimed Bin Hammam and Warner arranged to pay delegates of the CFU $40,000 in cash to vote for Blatter's only rival.
Bin Hammam and Warner are long-standing members of FIFA's all-powerful 24-man executive committee, 10 of whom have been subject to allegations of corruption in the last year.
Both will be absent from the Congress on Wednesday where Blatter can expect to be re-elected to the post he has held since 1998.
The case against Warner and Bin Hammam, who have denied any wrongdoing, will be heard in July, according to Namibian judge Petrus Damaseb who chaired yesterday's meeting.
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Published May 30, 2011 at 9:02 am (Updated May 30, 2011 at 9:00 am)