FIFA provisionally suspended two executive committee members and four lower-ranking officials Wednesday in a World Cup vote-selling scandal and said it would continue investigating all six.
Two executive committee members, Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti, were barred from all soccer-related duty until the investigation ends, said Claudio Sulser, chairman of FIFA’s ethics committee.
Four former executive members — Slim Aloulou, Amadou Diakite, Ahongalu Fusimalohi and Ismael Bhamjee — were suspended while FIFA investigates whether they breached ethical rules. The panel will continue investigating whether two unnamed bidders competing for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup engaged in collusion.
“Today is a sad day for football,” Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, said, asking for time to restore the association’s credibility. “We have to fight for respect and especially we have to fight that the people here in charge of FIFA behave as they should do.”
FIFA began its investigations after a British newspaper, The Sunday Times, said that Adamu and Temarii offered to sell their votes for funding toward soccer projects. The Sunday Times gave FIFA full video copies and transcripts of its evidence.
Undercover reporters filmed Adamu requesting $800,000 to build four artificial turf fields in Nigeria and for the money to be paid to him directly. Temarii was filmed asking for $2.3 million to finance a soccer academy in Auckland, New Zealand.
FIFA’s executive committee will select the hosts in voting on Dec. 2. The 2018 tournament will be in Europe, with four candidates: England, Russia and joint bids by Belgium-the Netherlands and Spain-Portugal. The 2022 host race is between the United States, Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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