Bin Hammam to appeal suspension

Mohamed Bin Hammam has said he will appeal against his suspension from FIFA, according to a statement on his website.

Mohamed Bin Hammam has announced his intention to appeal against his suspension from FIFA.

The organisation’s Asian confederation president was suspended yesterday, pending the outcome of a full inquiry into allegations they paid officials $40,000 (€28,000) each in bribes.

Bin Hammam denied making any payments and today issued a statement on his website in which he said he “will not accept yesterday’s decision”.

The statement read: ``Mohamed Bin Hammam will not accept yesterday's decision by the FIFA ethics committee.

“As he is only allowed to appeal against the motivated decision by the FIFA ethics committee, he urgently requested this by Tuesday (tomorrow) to be able to file his appeal in due time and to revoke the provisional ban before Wednesday’s congress is starting.

“There are many open questions: What was the discussion in the ethics committee and how did the ethics committee come to its conclusion? There are many other questions which need to be answered and transparency is urgently needed.

“The way these proceedings have been conducted is absolutely not compliant with any principles of justice. I am punished before I am found guilty.

“I get the impression that the outcome of these proceedings had been defined from the very beginning as it has been made evident at the press conference on Sunday evening at which FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke showed his bias very clearly.

“This is not acceptable as the FIFA ethics committee is supposed to be a fully independent body. Therefore, I also expect the further investigation to be influenced and manipulated.”

Bin Hammam withdrew from the FIFA presidential election yesterday. Blatter is the only candidate and the election will take place as scheduled on Wednesday.