Former AFC official commends Bin Hammam life ban

Posted Sunday, July 24, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

The life ban handed down to Mohamed bin Hammam was welcomed in parts of Asia but greeted with silence among football leaders in the Gulf where Bin Hammam rose to prominence and was credited with helping Qatar win the 2022 World Cup bid.

In Malaysia, former Asian Football Confederation general secretary Peter Velappan cheered the punishment against the 62-year-old Qatari, describing the one-time candidate for the FIFA presidency as “the architect of bribery and corruption” in the region.

“Justice is done and it’s good for FIFA and good for football,” Velappan, a longtime critic of bin Hammam, told The Associated Press on Sunday in a telephone interview from Malaysia. “I hope FIFA will continue this relentless effort to also bring the other rogues in the FIFA executive committee to account.”

FIFA on Saturday imposed the life ban on bin Hammam after finding the suspended Asian Football Confederation president guilty of bribery allegations in his campaign to unseat Sepp Blatter as head of the sport’s world governing body, just months after he helped secure 2022 World Cup hosting rights for his tiny Gulf homeland of Qatar.

The scandal led to bin Hammam abandoning his campaign for the FIFA presidency and ultimately led to the veteran executive committee member becoming the most senior official convicted of corruption in the governing body’s 107-year history.

Bin Hammam has denied the allegations, and plans to pursue other legal avenues to clear his name.

Velappan urged FIFA to conduct wide-ranging investigations into Qatar’s winning bid for the 2022 World Cup and into allegations of corruption at all levels, saying organizers should “spare no effort in getting to the very root of all these things.”

In an editorial Sunday, the United Arab Emirates-based sports daily Sport360 praised bin Hammam’s vow to clear his name and remain part of his country’s decade-long effort to stage the 2022 World Cup, saying FIFA’s ban “stinks.”

“FIFA’s attempt in trying to root out corruption is laudable, but its decision to allow Jack Warner, the former FIFA vice president, to go Scot free just because he resigned from his posts, makes the (bin Hammam) judgment laughable,” Sport360 said.

But football federations in the oil-rich region responded to the verdict with silence. The federation in the United Arab Emirates refused to comment, as did Bahrain’s association whose president Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa could run for the AFC presidency following Bin Hammam’s ban.

In Qatar, fans at the Qatar World Cup qualifier against Vietnam Saturday night portrayed Bin Hammam as a good man who was being punished for challenging Blatter. But the federation itself where Bin Hammam was once president refused to come to his defense, with Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani swatting away a question about him with a terse “no comment.”

Velappan, who served as AFC general secretary from 1978-2007, wants to see a review of the voting procedures that saw the 2022 World Cup awarded to Qatar.

“All this comes as a package—the presidential election and the World Cup,” he said. The Qatar bid has denied any wrong doing.

China’s Zhang Jilong, who has been interim president since bin Hammam was provisionally suspended last month, described FIFA’s ban on bin Hammam as a “sad day for the AFC and Asian football.”

“AFC respects FIFA’s decision and we also acknowledge former AFC President Mohamed bin Hammam’s inalienable right to lodge an appeal against the decision,” Zhang said in a statement.

Requests for interviews with AFC executive members have been declined by the AFC, which directed The AP to Zhang’s statement. The Oceania Football Confederation also declined to discuss the ban.

Korean Football Association officials in Taiwan for a regional youth tournament declined interview requests from the AP on Sunday.

Velappan expects a lengthy legal fight from bin Hammam, but suggested “the stigma of this bribery and corruption will never leave him.”

Velappan said bin Hammam’s behavior was symptomatic of a wider problem in world football, but was hopeful the FIFA ban represented an important first step in stamping out corruption at all levels of the sport.

“Nobody can hide anything now. The whole world knows that bribery and corruption are rampant,” Velappan told the AP. “You see it starting in Asia with the match fixing, and now that is all over the world including Europe.

“The FIFA Executive Committee, out of the 24 members, I don’t know many have soiled their hands in this dirty business.”

Velappan said now was the time to take action and make a change.

Bin Hammam is the third serving FIFA executive committee member banned from football for ethics violations in the past nine months.

A fourth, FIFA vice president Jack Warner, dodged the panel’s judgment by resigning from all of his football positions last month before answering charges about his part in the bribery plot.

“We have got … bin Hammam and Jack Warner out of the picture,” Velappan said. “Now FIFA should continue to probe into all the other guys.”

Japan Football Association president Junji Ogura said in a statement that while his association was disappointed bin Hammam was found guilty, the AFC must act quickly to find a replacement, starting with its board meeting on Friday.

Velappan agreed, saying the AFC can’t lose anymore time because its members are already very divided and polarized.