FIFA reveal fresh Bin Hammam dirt

FIFA's investigation into Mohamed Bin Hammam has uncovered substantial extra evidence of bribery.

It can be disclosed that the Qatari arranged for cash gifts to be given to officials during his presidential campaign.
A total of nine associations have told investigators that they were offered or accepted cash gifts of 40,000 US dollars at a special meeting of Bin Hammam with 25 members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) in Trinidad on May 10 and 11, according to FIFA's ethics committee's latest report.
The investigation by ex-FBI director Louis Freeh was concluded last week, and the report by Robert Torres, the judge heading the ethics committee probe, has now been sent to Bin Hammam ahead of a hearing in Zurich on July 22 and 23.
If found guilty of the charge of bribery he faces, the 62-year-old could face a life ban. He has always denied any wrongdoing. Bin Hammam and fellow FIFA member Jack Warner were both provisionally suspended on May 29. Warner is no longer under investigation following his resignation from football-related activities.
The ethics committee will also hear the cases of Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, two CFU officials alleged to have been involvement in making the payments.
In a previous report obtained by the Press Association, FIFA's ethics committee said there was "comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming evidence" of a prima facie case that Bin Hammam had paid or offered the cash - based on statements given by officials belonging to four associations: the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands.
A total of one million US dollars is alleged to have been paid out.
A further five associations - Puerto Rico, Surinam, Grenada, Aruba and Curacao - have since told investigators that they too were offered or given money - the cash was in brown envelopes - at the meeting, or saw evidence of that happening. They have also corroborated statements by four previous witnesses that Warner told the CFU delegates on May 11 that the money had been provided by Bin Hammam.
Some 12 associations in the Caribbean did not meet the investigators, and neither did Warner, although when he resigned he promised to co-operate with the inquiry. FIFA are now likely to open ethics committee investigations into the actions of these associations.
The report also makes clear that the CFU did not have the finances available to make the payments to the member associations. The CFU's financial statement for the end of 2010 reveals it had net debts of 242,000 US dollars, including 376,000 US dollars owed to Warner - who had been the CFU president - for a loan he made to the organisation.
Meanwhile, an official from the Guyana Football Federation has also said he saw other delegates emerge from a meeting room with brown envelopes and was told they contained cash.
Carlos Prowell, vice-president of the Guyana federation, told Press Association Sport: "Mr Bin Hammam came and made his presentation and talked about what he wanted to do about football. After that we were told to go to collect our gifts - it is normal to receive token gifts at all football functions from FIFA, CONCACAF and CFU.
"I was in the lobby and saw some of the other guys coming out with brown envelopes. I did not know what was inside the envelope but was told by one them it contained cash.
"We didn't know how much inside the envelopes - only later when we read about it in the media.
"We took a collective decision not to receive the gifts.
"I am a banker by profession and therefore anything that I do must be above board and very clear.
"I think people from the other federations may have accepted their gifts in good faith."
Prowell was representing Guyana at the meeting, but his association's president Colin Klass was also there in his capacity as a member of the CFU's executive committee. Prowell said Klass and the federation's general secretary Noel Adonis had met the investigators as requested.
Meanwhile, former Grenada national football player Paul Roberts, who was until recently vice-president of the Grenada Football Association, said that within days of the May 10 meeting he was given 20,000 US dollars to buy equipment for a communications department.
FIFA have said that Bin Hammam plus the two CFU officials "have been invited to present their position in writing".
"The parties as well as the ethics committee also have the opportunity to call on potential witnesses," said a FIFA statement.