Corruption allegations fly in soccer world

ZURICH -- FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam fought back in an increasingly bitter election fight Thursday, calling for current president Sepp Blatter to be investigated in a spiraling bribery scandal.

Bin Hammam urged the FIFA ethics panel, which is investigating him over allegations he tried to bribe voters in the Caribbean, to also examine Blatter's behavior.

The allegations against bin Hamman were made by Chuck Blazer, an American member of the FIFA executive committee. The U.S. lost out on its bid to host the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022, with FIFA awarding the 2022 event to Qatar.

The Qatari challenger said that evidence submitted to FIFA suggests Blatter broke the world soccer governing body's code of ethics by not reporting an apparent corruption attempt.

"The accusations also contain statements according to which Mr. Blatter, the incumbent FIFA president, was informed of, but did not oppose, payments allegedly made to members of the Caribbean Football Union," bin Hammam said in a statement.

Bin Hammam insisted that the scandal is a concerted "plan to damage" him and force him to withdraw from next Wednesday's election.

The counter claim provided another twist in an astonishing week for soccer's increasingly dysfunctional and discredited governing body.

Bin Hammam, the Asian Football Confederation president, and FIFA vice president Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago face an ethics hearing in Zurich on Sunday over allegations stemming from the Qatari's May 10-11 campaign trip to Trinidad.

The ethics panel can effectively hand Blatter victory in the election by suspending bin Hammam from all soccer duty. The panel could rule that wrongdoing was proven, or it could provisionally bar bin Hammam if it requests more time to study evidence compiled by a federal prosecutor from Chicago who works for Warner's CONCACAF regional body.

Though expressing sympathy for his longtime Qatari ally, Blatter said he admires American Blazer's "civic courage" for reporting the alleged bribery to FIFA headquarters. Blatter was indignant at suggestions he was part of a conspiracy to remove his election rival from the race.

"To now assume that the present ordeal of my opponent were to fill me with some sort of perverse satisfaction or that this entire matter was somehow masterminded by me is ludicrous and completely reprehensible," he said.

Blatter acknowledged that the latest scandal rocking FIFA -- after years of allegations of financial wrongdoing, ticket scalping and vote buying -- was a "storm of its own creation." "What FIFA needs is ironclad laws that are implemented forcefully and allow world football's governing body to conduct its affairs transparently, properly and professionally in every respect," he said.

Blatter, who joined FIFA in 1975 and has been president for 13 years, is seeking a fourth and final four-year term from FIFA's 208 national members. The 75-year-old Swiss pledged to "open the doors, reinforce dialogue, improve our corporate governance and handle our public affairs with the kind of priority it deserves and must deliver."