FIFA has banned its former Executive Committee member and Presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam, from football for life over bribery claims relating to his election campaign to take over from Sepp Blatter. This is a day of shame for football’s governing body.
These are such serious charges from the FIFA ethics committee that there should now be a fuller inquiry into Bin Hammam’s other recent work within FIFA, and in particular his role on the FIFA executive committee during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Bin Hammam intends to fight these charges at a higher level, including perhaps the Court of Arbitration of Sport. This just underlines the need for investigations into alleged wrong doing within FIFA to be carried out by a completely independent body that cannot be seen to be part of the internal politics of FIFA. This should be a body that the fans and football associations around the world can respect, and led by people who are not associated with Sepp Blatter.
The charges against Bin Hammam also stand in stark contrast to the treatment of Jack Warner, who faced the prospect of receiving a similar judgement and instead resigned from FIFA in return for a cover up of the investigations into his alleged bribery and corruption. Football fans have a right to hear on the record the conclusion of the investigations into his activities and if guilty he should receive an appropriate punishment. Again, this would also warrant and broader investigation into his recent activities within FIFA, and in particular the allegations made against his role in the World Cup bidding process.
I believe that there should also be an independent inquiry into the other allegations made against members of the FIFA ethics committee, and in particular those made against the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid.
Finally, the need for a broad based reform of FIFA remains as strong as ever. FIFA must change to become more open and accountable. There should also be more transparency into the interests of members of its Executive.
You can read more about our case for FIFA reform and our international supporters here - http://damiancollins.com/2011/06/fifa-reform-agenda/