Football's world governing body, FIFA, has provisionally suspended Executive Committee members Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii as it investigates allegations of World Cup vote-selling by the duo.
FIFA announced this yesterday at a press conference following a meeting of its ethics committee, chaired by former Switzerland striker Claudio Sulser.
Four other FIFA officials were also provisionally suspended from taking part in any football-related activity. They are Slim Aloulou, Amadou Diakite, Ahongalu Fusimalohi and Ismael Bhamjee.
Besides Sulser, other FIFA officials present at the press conference to announce the suspensions were Jerome Valcke, the world body's secretary general and Nicolas Maingot, its director of communications. The conference had started two hours later than advertised, without explanation for the delay.
"The decision to provisionally suspend these officials is fully justified and should not be put in question," said Sulser.
"The evidence that has been presented to us today has led us to take this provisional measure, as we considered that the conditions were definitely met to take this decision and we deem that it is crucial to protect the integrity of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process.
"We are determined to have zero tolerance for any breach of the code of ethics."
Sulser added that two national football bodies, albeit unnamed, were also being investigated in connection with the scandal.
Addressing the media after the suspension, FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, said it was a sad day for football especially after having recorded success in what people thought could not be possible with the World Cup in Africa. But he dismissed claims that FIFA is corrupt by saying the immediate reaction of the body to the scandal showed its seriousness on zero tolerance for corruption.
He urged the media to trust FIFA and promised he would continue to do everything to protect the reputation of the game as the president. Blatter also played down the magnitude of the scandal by saying just as we have good players, there also bad players.
The suspended officials now have between now and the middle of November, when the ethics committee will meet again to take a final decision ahead of the World Cup vote on December 2, to prepare their defence.
Investigations to continue
In the meantime, FIFA will investigate the circumstances leading to the suspensions, and presumably, related matters surrounding alleged voting arrangements between bidding nations and parties seeking to influence the bidding process.
Valcke said the vote to decide the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will still go ahead as planned on December 2, but added that if Adamu and Temarii are eventually found guilty then both of them will not be part of the voting process.
Five countries are vying for the right to stage the 2022 World Cup, namely Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea and the United States, while there are four bid groups for the 2018 World Cup.
They are England, Russia, as well as joint bids by the Netherlands and Belgium, along with another joint bid by the Iberian pair of Portugal and Spain.
EFCC trouble for Adamu
Reprieve may however be a long way off for Adamu as Nigeria's Anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is at the moment probing the one-time Director General of the National Sports Commission.
Reporters from British newspaper, the Sunday Times, posing as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies that wanted to help bring the World Cup back to the United States, filmed Adamu asking for money to fund the construction of four artificial football pitches in Nigeria.
No money exchanged hands but Adamu requested for the sum of £500,000, and in the opinion of the EFCC, that is enough reason to commence investigations on the embattled FIFA official.
"We have already commenced our own investigations mostly as a result of the fact that he was filmed demanding for money to construct football pitches in the country," EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi said.
However, Babafemi declined to confirm whether the agency will arrest Adamu upon his return to the country.
"That will depend on the outcome of our own investigation and that of FIFA," he said..
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