The Fifa bribery scandal has urged two of football’s biggest corporate sponsors, Coca-Cola and Adidas, to voice concerns over the harm it is doing to the game of football.
Last night, Coca-Cola said in a statement: “The current allegations being raised are distressing and bad for the sport. We have every expectation that Fifa will resolve this situation in an expedient and thorough manner.”
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Meanwhile, German brand, Adidas, said the negative publicity was “neither good for football nor Fifa and its partners.”
The concern from the two world cup sponsors, who have both ploughed millions into the game, comes hours after pictures emerged of an envelope full of cash allegedly used to influence Fifa’s presidential election.
Officials from 25 Caribbean associations were said to have each been offered a £24,000 bribe three weeks ago to vote for Mohamed Bin Hammam from Qatar.
At the same time, an email was revealed in which Fifa secretary-general, Jerome Valcke suggested Mohamed Bin Hammam, had “bought” the right to stage the 2022 World Cup.
Bin Hammam, head of the Asian Football Confederation, withdrew his contention for the organisation’s presidency over bribery allegations.
It came just hours before he was suspended by Fifa’s ethics committee over the accusations, along with another executive committee member, Jack Warner of Trinidad, and two other Caribbean officials.
If the allegations are proven it raises the possibility Qatar could lose the right to host the competition and there would have to be a ‘re-vote’.
Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter, 75, will now stand unopposed at the presidential election tomorrow – which critics say should be postponed.
Blatter conceded at a news conference that the organisation’s image had suffered “great damage” but refused to step down and added: “We are not in a crisis. We are only in some difficulties which will be solved within our family.”
His defiance has been widely criticised.
The pictures of the cash were taken by Fred Lunn, vice-president of the Bahamas FA, who attended a special meeting with other members of the Caribbean Football Union on May 10 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Trinidad.
According to his affidavit, the 25 football associations had been asked to attend a conference room to pick up a “gift”.
He said he was handed a large brown envelope. When he opened it “stacks of $100 bills fell out on to the table. I was stunned to see this cash”.
Lunn said he was not authorised to accept such a gift but was urged to do so by a CFU official.
He texted his association’s president Anton Sealey to say that several representatives had accepted the cash.
Sealey called him and said that “under no circumstances would the Bahamas FA take such a cash gift” and he should return it.
Lunn took a picture of the money before he replaced it in the envelope and returned to the conference room to hand it back.
The email which apparently suggested Qatar had bought the World Cup was sent to Jack Warner by Valcke, a Frenchman.
The message, made public by Warner yesterday, alluded to Bin Hammam’s bid for the Fifa presidency and referred to him by his initials.
According to Warner, the email said: “For MBH, I never understood why he was running.
“If really he thought he had a chance or just being an extreme way to express how much he does not like anymore JSB [Joseph Sepp Blatter]. Or he thought you can buy Fifa as they bought the WC [World Cup].
“Valcke confirmed he sent the email to Warner but said he had not meant to suggest “unethical’ behaviour”.
“When I refer to the 2022 Fifa World Cup in that email, what I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support.”
Qatar’s winning bid, announced in December, was hugely controversial. Temperatures there reach 50 degrees celsius in summer when the tournament will be staged.
The organisers plan to get round this by using solar-powered air conditioning at the stadiums.
They denied that they “bought” the right to stage the tournament and said they were “taking legal advice to consider our options”.
At yesterday’s news conference, Blatter ruled out action against four Fifa executive committee members accused during a British parliamentary hearing this month of corruption relating to England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Fifa had received a report from Lord Triesman of the FA concerning the allegations against Jack Warner, Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil, Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay and Worawi Makudi of Thailand. But it decided there was no case to answer.
Labour MP Tom Watson suggested that the FA should now try to recoup the costs of its failed bid, while Tory MP Therese Coffey called for tomorrow’s Fifa presidential election to be suspended while corruption claims are investigated.
