Fifa corruption verdict due in July

Fifa president Sepp Blatter says he expects a verdict next month from the committee charged with investigating the corruption scandal.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter says he expects a verdict next month from the committee charged with investigating the corruption scandal.

Published Jun 25, 2011

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Berlin – Fifa president Sepp Blatter said Saturday he expects a verdict next month from the committee charged with investigating the corruption scandal which has rocked football's governing body.

“The ethical committee is working on it and will come to a decision during the course of July,” said Blatter during a Fifa press conference in Berlin ahead of the women's World Cup, which starts Sunday.

But Blatter repeated there will be no investigation into the conduct of ex-Fifa vice-president Jack Warner who resigned on Monday.

Both Warner, from Trinidad and Tobago, and Qatar's Mohamed Bin Hammam were provisionally suspended on 29 May by Fifa officials investigating bribery allegations.

Warner, the influential head of the Caribbean, North and Central American Federation (Concacaf), resigned on Monday, quitting all football-related activities and Blatter says there will be no investigation into the Trinidadian.

“We know that he has resigned, so there will be no inquiry into him,” Blatter insisted.

The investigation will only look into the conduct of Bin Hammam, who is accused of having bribed Fifa officials in his campaign to oust Blatter as Fifa president.

He later withdrew from the presidency race and Blatter was re-elected.

Both Bin Hammam and Warner have consistently denied any wrongdoing, but a Fifa report seen by the Britain's Press Association says there is “overwhelming evidence” that Bin Hammam used bribery in his presidential campaign.

The report by Fifa's ethics committee also stated that Warner was “an accessory to corruption”.

In Saturday's feisty press conference, former Germany player Steffi Jones, the president of the organising committee for Germany 2011, insisted that all questions had to be directed exclusively towards the women's World Cup.

When Jones was earlier asked if Fifa can expect any negative reaction from fans disgruntled by the allegations which have tarnished Fifa's reputation, she was quick to dismiss the question.

“I hope that we will show ourselves to be good hosts and there will not be a hostile reception here for Fifa,” she insisted.

But when a German journalist asked Thailand's Worawi Makudi, the chairman of the Fifa women's football committee, whether he has ever been bribed as a member of the body's executive committee, the press conference was halted abruptly. – Sapa-AFP

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