ZURICH — Suspended FIFA executive Mohamed bin Hammam faces a lifetime ban from football on Saturday, if football's governing body decides he tried to bribe his way to the presidency.

The 62-year-old Qatari denies wrongdoing but said Friday he expects the five-man FIFA ethics panel to find him guilty. He indicated he will appeal if that is the case.

"None of us should be completely surprised if a guilty verdict is returned," bin Hammam said on his personal website. "It seems likely that FIFA has already made its decision weeks ago."

A leaked interim report said the panel found "compelling" evidence that bin Hammam conspired to pay Caribbean officials $40,000 in bribes to back his ultimately abandoned challenge to FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

The Asian Football Confederation president, who isn't expected in Zurich for the verdict, would become the most senior FIFA official ever convicted of corruption.

He has not cooperated with the FIFA probe, which hired investigators from the private firm of former FBI director Louis Freeh.

Bin Hammam claimed the case was biased against him and politically motivated to stop him from challenging Blatter, who was re-elected unopposed to world football's top job last month.

A member of FIFA's inner circle for 15 years, bin Hammam launched his election campaign after helping Qatar win the 2022 World Cup hosting rights last December.

His candidacy plunged FIFA into the most serious crisis in its 107-year history as it was fending off unproven allegations of corruption in the 2018 and 2022 bidding contests.

If convicted Saturday, Bin Hammam would be the third serving FIFA executive committee member banned from football by the ethics panel in the past nine months.

A fourth, FIFA vice president Jack Warner, dodged the panel's judgment last month by resigning from all of his football positions before answering charges that he conspired in a bribery plot.

The case centers on a May 10-11 meeting arranged in Warner's native Trinidad for bin Hammam to lobby Caribbean Football Union countries, who hold 25 of FIFA's 208 national member votes and were considered key to defeating Blatter.

Whistleblowers from the CFU said they were later offered brown envelopes stuffed with four piles of $100 bills.

They gave witness statements that Warner told them that he advised the Qatari candidate to bring cash gifts which could be spent as they chose.

FIFA's code of ethics prohibits officials accepting any cash gifts.

The leaked reports said FIFA investigators found circumstantial evidence that bin Hammam provided the cash, but not a direct link.

View Comments

Bin Hammam denies buying votes but acknowledged transferring $360,000 to the CFU to pay for the conference, including delegates' travel and accommodation expenses. He refused requests to disclose bank account records and other financial details to Freeh's investigators.

Two CFU staffers, Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, have also been charged for their part in distributing the alleged bribes. They did not attend Friday's hearing.

The Caribbean officials deny being offered money and gave statements backing bin Hammam and Warner. They face their own FIFA investigation if the ethics panel opens a second wave of cases.

The verdicts will be handed down at FIFA headquarters Saturday.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.