DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The man in charge of
Asian soccer, once a candidate to oust FIFA president Sepp Blatter as the
sport's leader, enriched himself and handed out hundreds of thousands of
dollars to friends and relatives, according to an audit obtained by The
Associated Press.
Mohamed bin Hammam, a 63-year-old Qatari whose life ban
from soccer was overturned in a sports court this week, is accused of using the
Asian Football Confederation bank accounts to conduct his private affairs.
The audit was prepared by the international accounting
firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers and dated July 13. A copy of the report was
obtained by the AP. Its contents were confirmed by two people with direct
knowledge of the report who spoke on condition of anonymity because it hasn't
been made public.
The report offered rare details of the usually secretive
accounts of not-for-profit football bodies handling hundreds of millions of
dollars. And it portrayed a man who was running Asian soccer like a family
business, negotiating contracts on his own and mingling his personal and AFC
bank accounts.
The audit was especially critical of bin Hammam's use of
AFC accounts for personal expenses, although there was no evidence of direct
payments to bin Hammam.
"It is highly unusual for funds (especially in the
amounts detailed here) that appear to be for the benefit of Mr. Hammam
personally, to be deposited to an organization's bank account," the audit
said.
He received millions of dollars from individuals linked
to AFC contracts, according to the audit, and spent tens of thousands of
dollars on items like a honeymoon for his son and dental work, haircuts and
cash payments for his family.
It found he spent $700,000 from AFC coffers on himself
and his family, including $100,000 for his wife, $10,000 on a Bulgari watch for
himself and nearly $5,000 for his daughter's cosmetic dentistry.
Payments were also made to Asian, African and Caribbean
soccer officials, including $250,000 to Jack Warner, the longtime strongman of
Caribbean soccer.
"The arrangement with Mr Hammam's use of the sundry
debtors account is, in our view, highly unusual and reflects poor
governance," the audit said. "This use by Mr Hammam of the sundry
debtors account continued even after the external auditor's recommended that it
be stopped. Our review indicates that it was common belief that this account
was for Mr Hammam personally and all funds flowing through it were his personal
monies.
"We question why Mr Hammam would conduct his
personal financial transactions through the AFC's bank accounts when the
documents we have seen indicate that he already has several personal bank
accounts in various countries," the audit said.
The Asian governing body, which he has led since 2002
was advised to seek "legal advice in respect of ... whether the actions of
Mr. Hammam, and other parties identified in this report, constitute criminal
and/or civil breaches." Bin Hammam was suspended for 30 days by the AFC
following receipt of the report last week.
Bin Hammam was not available for comment. His U.S.
lawyer said the allegations were a FIFA tactic to block his return to world
soccer.
"If there were ever any question about the
political motives behind FIFA's vendetta against Mr. Bin Hammam, it has been
answered by the outrageous and baseless new charges that FIFA and AFC are
bringing against him," lawyer Eugene Gulland said in a statement.
The audit found that a contract for commercial rights
with World Sports Group and its subsidiary World Sports Football were no-bid
contracts that were "considerably undervalued." A $14 million payment
from companies with stakes in WSG, Al Baraka Investment and Development Co. and
International Sports Events Company, was made to the AFC for the "personal
use of its president," the report said.
Bin Hammam also approved several lucrative, no-bid
contracts for commercial rights, including one for Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera
Satellite Network.
The audit said its review of the AFC accounts found that
it routinely handed out tens of thousands of dollars in cash to federation
presidents and their relatives. Most of it went to their personal bank accounts
and none of it was for soccer-related expenses, it said.
Gaurav Thapa, whose father heads the Nepalese
federation, received $100,000 while Filipino soccer official Jose Mari Martinez
received $60,000 and had $11,226 in hospital expenses paid. Another $50,000
went to East Timorese soccer official Francisco Kalbuadi Lay, the audit found.
Another $25,000 went for tuition expenses for a
Bangladesh soccer federation spokesman and $20,000 to cover the cost of cancer
treatment for the federation's general secretary.
Also, nearly $2,000 was spent by bin Hammam to buy 14
shirts for Blatter and nearly $5,000 went toward the purchase of suits for Issa
Hayatou, the CAF president.
The acting head of the AFC called for an end to spending
abuses.
"I think this development also makes one thing very
clear to all of us -- there is no place for unethical practices anymore in
AFC," Zhang Jilong said in his opening address Thursday to an executive committee
meeting. "I ask this (committee) to prevent any abuse of power and misuse
of privileges by any office bearer."
Copyright 2012 by The
Associated Press
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Here are some of the articles I wrote while fighting the PFF years ago:
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