He’s back! Mohamed Bin Hammam has been banished from football over bribery allegations but FIFA cannot ban him from social networking and this is the public launchpad for his fightback.
Suddenly, not only has MBH’s personal blog sprung back into life but he has used his Facebook account to take the fight to the enemy. And, it is pretty clear from his latest two salvoes, that the man directly in MBH’s firing line is Jerome Valcke, the FIFA secretary-general.
Valcke’s position in all of this is fascinating. The Frenchman accomplished a near-miracle in driving South Africa’s World Cup preparations to a successful conclusion. Now he is undergoing a Groundhog Day experience with Brazil, grinding ahead to 2014.
Amid all this he is enmeshed in seeking to resolve the corruption inquiries sparked by Bin Hammam’s presidential vote-seeking conference in the Caribbean last May.
One assumes WS readers do not need any repetition of all the facts surrounding that meeting of the Caribbean Football Union.
Bin Hammam pledged to appeal his guilty verdict all the way through the sports and Swiss courts and has begun such proceedings. He announced his intention last week and, in his supporting blog, targeted not FIFA president Sepp Blatter but Valcke and CONCACAF secretary-general Chuck Blazer for having “directed” an inquiry into the initial CFU meeting.
More specifically, he also attacked Valcke for launching “another investigation to find if I have done anything wrong.”
Now, Bin Hammam has returned to the attack on Valcke. Describing him as “the co-owner of FIFA,” Bin Hammam accuses Valcke of “threatening [CFU member associations] to either admit that they have been bribed or he will open an investigation to find out if I have bribed them or not!! [sic].”
Bin Hammam adds: “From the language of the [Valcke] letter, one can see who has the power and who is the decision maker in the Ethics Committee or the Appeals Committee.”
FIFA’s secretary-general is the only FIFA employee who has the power to register a complaint with the Ethics Committee. At the moment.
Blatter, during FIFA Congress, promised that in future the SG would be stripped of such powers.
Since Bin Hammam had used his Facebook facility to publish a link to Valcke’s letter, I used the same media to respond. I asked if “Dear Mohamed” would kindly publish all the receipts for the travel and accommodation expenses which were offered on his behalf at the famous CFU conference.
After all, if there is nothing to hide then . . . there is nothing to hide.
Watch this space.
