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Fifa rocked by fresh claims after Surinam FA reports $40,000 gift
• Surinam FA told cash was for 'development purposes'
• Further claims dog Mohamed bin Hammam and Jack Warner
Owen Gibson
Mohamed bin Hammam offered 'gifts' to Caribbean football associations, according to some CFU members. Photograph: Fadi al-Assaad/Reuters
Another Caribbean football association has come forward to allege receiving $40,000 (£24,440) in cash at the meeting arranged by Fifa's presidential challenger Mohamed bin Hammam and one of its vice-presidents Jack Warner at the heart of the bribery scandal that has rocked the world football governing body.
The president of the Surinam FA has now claimed it received the cash in $100 bills in a brown paper envelope on arrival in Trinidad for the meeting with Bin Hammam on 10 May.
According to Louis Giskus it accepted the money – which it was told was from the CFU for "development projects" – and placed it in a bank account on its representatives' return. But because they left on the evening of 10 May, they were not present the next day when it is alleged by others that the suspended Concacaf president Warner told the CFU members present that the money was a gift from Bin Hammam.
"We went up to a room and were given $40,000 in a brown envelope with the name of Surinam on it," Giskus told the Press Association. "We were surprised, and asked who the gift was from. Mr Jason Sylvester told us that it was a gift from the CFU for developing football in Surinam. We asked once more and were told it was for developing football in our country and that's why we accepted it.
"I asked if we would get problems with Customs leaving Port of Spain with that amount of money and he [Sylvester] told us there would be no problems. I wrote his mobile number on the envelope so that if there were any problems at the airport we could call it." Sylvester was one of two CFU officials also suspended by Fifa along with Bin Hammam and Warner.
The new evidence from Surinam appears to back up the version of events outlined by other CFU members in the evidence file compiled by the US lawyer John Collins at the behest of the Fifa executive committee member and Concacaf general secretary Chuck Blazer.
The civil war within Concacaf further intensified as Fifa imposed a worldwide ban on Lisle Austin, who claimed to be acting president of the federation in the wake of the suspension of Warner and attempted to fire Blazer.
The whistleblowers were led by the Bahamas FA president Anton Sealey and vice-president Fred Lunn, whose claims were backed by statements from the Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands FAs. According to Lunn's affidavit, he was given $40,000 in cash and after photographing the notes he returned the money and set in train the bribery investigation.
A split has formed in the CFU between those who have backed the claims in the evidence file, which also includes text messages and email traffic, and those who insist no inducements were offered.
The president of the Barbados Football Association, Ronald Jones, insisted on Thursday that neither he nor his officials were offered any bribes.
"The Barbados Football Association was made aware that the trip and accommodation were sponsored by Mohamed bin Hamman under the auspices of the CFU," he said.
"The BFA did not and does not see this as akin to bribery or any inducements as in the past trips by Caribbean delegates to meetings have been sponsored by the organisation and agency that wanted to put on the programme."
Approached by the Guardian when news of the allegations broke, the general secretary of the Anguilla FA Damien Hughes said: "I can say categorically that we and the Anguilla Football Association have not received any cash gifts."
Warner has claimed to have the written support of 13 of the 25 members of the CFU, refuting the allegations.
The majority of the 25 members of the CFU refused to attend a tribunal organised this week in Miami by the independent investigators from the Fifa ethics committee tasked with looking into the bribery claims, which led Bin Hammam to withdraw from the presidential race hours before he and Warner were suspended.
The Fifa investigation, being conducted by a company owned by ex-FBI director Louis Freeh, is now believed to be seeking a new venue in the Carribean to meet with the CFU members.
Meanwhile, Warner said he had no plans to meet the investigators: "I have not received any summons asking me to speak with them [the investigators] nor do I plan to do so."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...ry-allegations
• Surinam FA told cash was for 'development purposes'
• Further claims dog Mohamed bin Hammam and Jack Warner
Owen Gibson
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 June 2011 20.35 BST
- Article history
Mohamed bin Hammam offered 'gifts' to Caribbean football associations, according to some CFU members. Photograph: Fadi al-Assaad/Reuters
Another Caribbean football association has come forward to allege receiving $40,000 (£24,440) in cash at the meeting arranged by Fifa's presidential challenger Mohamed bin Hammam and one of its vice-presidents Jack Warner at the heart of the bribery scandal that has rocked the world football governing body.
The president of the Surinam FA has now claimed it received the cash in $100 bills in a brown paper envelope on arrival in Trinidad for the meeting with Bin Hammam on 10 May.
According to Louis Giskus it accepted the money – which it was told was from the CFU for "development projects" – and placed it in a bank account on its representatives' return. But because they left on the evening of 10 May, they were not present the next day when it is alleged by others that the suspended Concacaf president Warner told the CFU members present that the money was a gift from Bin Hammam.
"We went up to a room and were given $40,000 in a brown envelope with the name of Surinam on it," Giskus told the Press Association. "We were surprised, and asked who the gift was from. Mr Jason Sylvester told us that it was a gift from the CFU for developing football in Surinam. We asked once more and were told it was for developing football in our country and that's why we accepted it.
"I asked if we would get problems with Customs leaving Port of Spain with that amount of money and he [Sylvester] told us there would be no problems. I wrote his mobile number on the envelope so that if there were any problems at the airport we could call it." Sylvester was one of two CFU officials also suspended by Fifa along with Bin Hammam and Warner.
The new evidence from Surinam appears to back up the version of events outlined by other CFU members in the evidence file compiled by the US lawyer John Collins at the behest of the Fifa executive committee member and Concacaf general secretary Chuck Blazer.
The civil war within Concacaf further intensified as Fifa imposed a worldwide ban on Lisle Austin, who claimed to be acting president of the federation in the wake of the suspension of Warner and attempted to fire Blazer.
The whistleblowers were led by the Bahamas FA president Anton Sealey and vice-president Fred Lunn, whose claims were backed by statements from the Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands FAs. According to Lunn's affidavit, he was given $40,000 in cash and after photographing the notes he returned the money and set in train the bribery investigation.
A split has formed in the CFU between those who have backed the claims in the evidence file, which also includes text messages and email traffic, and those who insist no inducements were offered.
The president of the Barbados Football Association, Ronald Jones, insisted on Thursday that neither he nor his officials were offered any bribes.
"The Barbados Football Association was made aware that the trip and accommodation were sponsored by Mohamed bin Hamman under the auspices of the CFU," he said.
"The BFA did not and does not see this as akin to bribery or any inducements as in the past trips by Caribbean delegates to meetings have been sponsored by the organisation and agency that wanted to put on the programme."
Approached by the Guardian when news of the allegations broke, the general secretary of the Anguilla FA Damien Hughes said: "I can say categorically that we and the Anguilla Football Association have not received any cash gifts."
Warner has claimed to have the written support of 13 of the 25 members of the CFU, refuting the allegations.
The majority of the 25 members of the CFU refused to attend a tribunal organised this week in Miami by the independent investigators from the Fifa ethics committee tasked with looking into the bribery claims, which led Bin Hammam to withdraw from the presidential race hours before he and Warner were suspended.
The Fifa investigation, being conducted by a company owned by ex-FBI director Louis Freeh, is now believed to be seeking a new venue in the Carribean to meet with the CFU members.
Meanwhile, Warner said he had no plans to meet the investigators: "I have not received any summons asking me to speak with them [the investigators] nor do I plan to do so."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...ry-allegations
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