(ATR) FIFA backtracks on the appointment of Issa Hayatou as head of its London Olympics football organising committee and GOAL Bureau.
"We can confirm that Issa Hayatou has been appointed as the new chairman of the GOAL Bureau and of the organising committee for the Olympic football tournaments," FIFA said in an email sent to ATR on Tuesday evening, clarifying confirmation made in a phone call and a statement already issued on the Confederation of African Football's website.
The FIFA website had even been updated with the president of the Confederation of African Football's name listed as chairman of the two committees.
But in an astonishing U-turn, FIFA last night backtracked on the announcement, denying that the controversial African football boss, who has twice faced corruption allegations in the last year, had been awarded the FIFA positions.
"Due to a technical error, appointments for FIFA standing committees have appeared on the FIFA website," said the FIFA statement released to media late Wednesday. "The appointments for the chairman and deputy chairman of the FIFA standing committees will be communicated in due course.
"Therefore, Issa Hayatou has not been appointed as chairman of the organising committee for the Olympic football tournaments."
The appointments, apparently rubberstamped by FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, had attracted heavy criticism as Hayatou, an IOC member from Cameroon, name is still fighting offbribery allegations relating to a BBC Panorama documentary. He is currently the subject of an IOC investigation.
New high-profile jobs for Hayatou hardly fit with Blatter's pledge to clean-up FIFA "from within" following a disastrous year for the federation which has been rocked by a series of bribery scandals.
As new chairman of the GOAL Bureau, Hayatou would have replaced disgraced Mohamed Bin Hammam, who was handed a lifetime ban by FIFA in July following alleged attempts to bribe Caribbean voters in the FIFA presidential race.
The statement on Hayatou's FIFA appointments has since been removed from the CAF website.
Hayatou previously chaired FIFA's Olympics committee from 1992 to 2006. He has been an IOC member since 2001.
He was among three FIFA executives charged with accepting bribes in a BBC Panorama investigation aired just prior to the Dec. 2 vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. It was claimed he took a kickback in the $100 million scandal in the 1990s that engulfed FIFA's now-defunct marketing partner ISL.
Hayatou denied accepted 100,000 French Francs (about $20,340), saying it was a payment towards his confederation's 40th anniversary celebrations.
On Tuesday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams told ATR that Hayatou was still under investigation over corruption allegations.
"The ethics commission acts independently of the IOC, but my understanding is that those mentioned in the BBC programme are still under investigation and no formal report has yet been sent to the IOC's executive board," he said.
Hayatou was implicated in another bribery scandal earlier this year when The Sunday Times claimed the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid paid him a bribe in exchange for his vote. He denied any wrongdoing and FIFA cleared him after it received no evidence to back up the allegations.
Reported by Mark Bisson
Your best source of news about the global football business is World Football INSIDER, sister publication to Around the Rings
Get Free WFI news bulletins Click Here
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
