26 September 2015

FIFA Scandal: Amos Adamu Wants Blatter & Platini Punished

Former Fifa executive committee member, Dr Amos Adamu, has called on the world football governing body's ethics committee to suspend Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini.

Adamu's call for two of the most powerful men in world football to be suspended comes after Swiss prosecutors opened proceedings against the outgoing Fifa president, Blatter, over "disloyal payment" to Platini was allegedly uncovered. The amount is believed to be over £1.3 million.

But the 62-year-old Nigerian is "not too surprised" with the happenings in Fifa as he perceived the crisis rocking the world football governing body will erupt at some point.


The former Caf executive member further called for "thorough investigation" on Fifa as he feels more scandals will be revealed.

"I am not too surprised because I can see it coming when they started all these corruption charges here and there. I know that somehow when they look at the books they will come out clean; clean in the sense of it. They have been there for a long time. They know what is involved there and by and large they will try and hide things. But I am sure if they do more thorough investigation more things will come out," Adamu said on a sports magazine programme on Channel TV on Friday.

The former Director-General of the Nigerian National Sports Commission also described the ongoing inquest into the activities of the world apex football body and its leadership as "unfortunate."

He, however, tracks the corruption crisis at Fifa back to 2010 when he was suspended from his role as executive committee member.

Adamu, who was found guilty by Fifa's ethics committee alongside Reynald Temarii, for breaching the body's bribery rules, claimed that he was made a scape-goat.

He is now calling on the same Fifa ethics committee to sit and suspend Blatter and Platini like it (the committee) did in his case while he was under a probe in 2010.

"It is very unfortunate (what is happening at Fifa). I told them when my case started that 'this thing you're starting, you want to make me a scape-goat it will come (back) to (haunt) you because if you are trying to say that the election is coming and you want to play to the gallery when the chips are down this thing will come down and it will be investigated properly.' Now it (the truth) is coming out now. More revelation will come out and I believe that wherever he (Blatter) is now and all of them (at Fifa) will be jittery.

"Blatter should be sent on suspension immediately. You remember my case. When it came out the first thing they did was that you're under investigation the rule says you must go on suspension. And they placed me on suspension the first day. Now he is under criminal investigation, he cannot sit in office if they follow the laws. I am waiting to see what the (Fifa) ethics committee will say because rules are rules. He should go on suspension immediately. Platini has been mentioned in the whole issue also, he too should go on suspension immediately. That is what the law says.

"That is what they did to me. Immediately the newspaper (Sunday Times publication) came in, the next day they called me and said the law says you have to go on suspension. I went on suspension until they finished all of the investigation. Now they have opened an investigation on them, the ethics committee should come out and play by the rules. They should go on suspension till they finish the investigation on them. And the most senior vice-president (of Fifa, Issa Hayatou) should take over. That is the law. I am waiting because today is just the first day, so I want to see what the ethics committee will do. I want the ethics committee to follow the rules now.

"When the whole thing (my case) came up, initially I didn't believe that it will happen because I didn't see anything corruption (in it). I saw what they were doing because election was coming and they kept saying 'you should go, you should go.' Mind you when my case started I picked a lawyer from London and the lawyer went to the ethics committee to defend me. Just a little after that Fifa called them to say they should drop that case. They told them not to defend me because the way they were going they knew I will go out free.

"And so the lawyers came to me and said because of conflict of interest we cannot continue with the case. I asked them 'what conflict of interest? (When) we started this case didn't you know that you had a conflict of interest?' They said Fifa advised their bosses to drop the case and that they felt I had a good case and they advised me to look for another lawyer who is good that can handle my case. I told them to refund every money I paid them or else I will report them to the British authority and they refunded every kobo (Nigeria's smallest denomination) to me. I got another lawyer for the case and they (Fifa) told me to resign (as a Fifa executive committee member) but I refused. They said if I resigned that the case will be dropped and I said I want to follow it to a logical conclusion. So now the Fifa ethics committee needs to prove that they are independent and shouldn't work behind the scene to protect anybody. They must come out now and send Blatter and Platini on suspension. Remember what they did during our time? I expect them to do the same thing - put them under suspension and then allow investigation to go on. That is the just thing to do," Adamu said.

Adamu was suspended by the Fifa ethics committee in November 2010 for three years and fined CHF10,000 Swiss Francs after the Sunday Times of the UK allegedly published that he agreed to receive £500,000 to influence the voting process for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

The Nigerian denied the allegation, claiming that he wanted cash to build pitches in his country.

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