FIFA: Mussenden Steps Down From Appeal
Larry Mussenden withdrew from a case involving Mohamed bin Hammam because he gave evidence of an alleged election bribery plot involving the Qatari official. The Associated Press reports that Mr Mussenden recused himself from the FIFA appeal hearing.
Bermuda is among four Caribbean Football Union members whose officials refused $40,000 cash payments allegedly arranged by bin Hammam and former FIFA vice president Jack Warner in Trinidad last month.
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I feel confident that i am not alone in saying that FIFA and all of its regional Federations are in need of a deep, very deep, cleansing. For far to long football has had to live with this rogue entity that continuously provides the world press with fodder for their canons. Blatter, Valcke, Warner, Hamamm are just some of the long list of senior figures that have made global headlines with stories of corruption, lies and deceipt. Many of these acts if committed outside of football would be considered crimes, but not in FIFA, they simply find creative ways to pat the offenders on the wrist and say please be more careful next time. I was reading comments from a past President of the Asian Football Federation who called for FIFA to rid themselves of all executive members and start again. He went to to say and I paraphrase,FIFA officals enter into football to see how much money they can make. I couldn’t agree more.
So happy to see that David Sabir and Greg Grimes of the BFA were among a small group of Concacaf member associations that declined to accept the alleged bribe.
However,is corruption so pervasive in football and life in general that we find this action something to applaud? From were I sit, this should be the norm, shouldn’t it? Ok, call me naive.
I am more glad than willling to applaud what should in essence be the norm…