November 2, 2010: Senior FIFA Official Criticizes Sunday Times for Exposing Corruption

Mohamed bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation and a senior member of FIFA’s executive committee that is soon to vote on the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, criticizes a Sunday Times investigation which recently revealed two of his fellow committee members were corrupt. The investigation led to the suspension of the two men, Nigeria’s Amos Adamu and Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii, from the committee, after they agreed to accept money from Sunday Times reporters posing as lobbyists to vote a certain way. “Forging identity, fabricating evidence, and setting traps are unethical behaviours in my point of view,” says bin Hammam. “One thing about Middle East media, these are rare happenings there. Is it ethical to use unethical measures to protect the ethic? How can we serve justice and look for fairness by not acting justly and fairly? How will we clean dirty laundry by using dirty water?” [Daily Mail, 11/2/2010]