FIFA official faces sack for touting match tickets

THE SENIOR FIFA figure at the centre of a World Cup ticket scandal faces becoming the first person to be kicked off the organisation’s executive committee in its 102-year history.

Ismail Bhamjee, who was caught out selling England tickets for several times their face value, has already been ordered to leave Germany and cease all World Cup duties.

Further disciplinary action will follow and it is expected that he will be expelled from his executive committee post, which carries a £54,000 annual salary as well as £270-a-day expenses.

He could even lose the pension of £16,000 (€23,440) annually that is given to former executive committee members.

FIFA communications director Markus Siegler admitted the scandal was deeply embarrassing.

“It is a big disappointment, and it is embarrassing if a high-ranking official of your organisation is doing these things.

“We are confident this is a one-off. The ethics committee, the disciplinary committee and the executive committee are now bound to take action.

“FIFA have proved that we take these things seriously and have taken immediate action. I don’t believe this incident will overshadow the so-far great success of the World Cup.”

The scandal arose after Bhamjee, from Botswana in southern Africa, started speaking to some England fans in an Indian restaurant in Frankfurt. They asked him if he could secure tickets for England v Trinidad for them and Bhamjee offered 12 tickets with a face value of £70 (€103) for £210 (€308) each.

He was caught out after one of the fans told the Mail on Sunday newspaper, who sent a reporter to meet Bhamjee in his hotel and handed over the money.

The FIFA member then said he could obtain tickets for England’s game with Sweden but that the cost for those would be up to £700 (e1,025).

FIFA called an emergency meeting of the six confederation heads and president Sepp Blatter after being presented with the evidence. They decide to sack Bhamjee and send him home.

He was due to be replaced on the executive committee in January anyway after losing the support of African countries.

Bhamjee is understood to have voted for Morocco ahead of Botswana’s neighbours South Africa as the hosts of the 2010 World Cup, and also mounted an unsuccessful campaign to replace Issa Hayatou as president of the African confederation.

A long-standing member of FIFA’s executive committee, he started out running a hardware store in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, before becoming a leading light in the country’s football association. From there, he was voted on to FIFA.

Bhamjee, 62, told the Mail on Sunday: “I was actually trying to help someone else and I got in this mess and I regret it very much. I will donate double the amount to charity.

“My term ends in a year. I have never ever done this before. I have got a year to go. I could lose my pension because of this. Spare me.”

Bhamjee also signed a declaration for FIFA saying: “I, Ismail Bhamjee, member of the FIFA executive committee, hereby confirm the fact that I have sold on 12 category one tickets of the 2006 FIFA World Cup match England v Trinidad & Tobago, played on 15 June in Nuremberg, for €300 each, ie €200 above face value for each ticket.

“I deeply regret this incorrect act and apologise to FIFA for violating the relevant terms and conditions governing the sale of tickets for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.”