BERNE, July 21, (RTRS): Mohamed Bin Hammam will learn his fate on Saturday when FIFA completes its probe into alleged bribery by the former presidential candidate although world soccer’s governing body will be just as much under scrutiny.
The investigation against the suspended 62-year-old Qatari head of the Asian Football Confederation will be seen as a test of FIFA chief Sepp Blatter’s claim that his corruption-plagued organisation can police itself without outside help.
Blatter, starting what he has promised will be his fourth and final term as president, has promised to take a zero tolerance approach to corruption.
However, his suggestions that former Dutch football great Johan Cruyff, ex-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Spanish tenor Placido Domingo could sit on a new watchdog committee have baffled many observers.

The 75-year-old Blatter will be thousands of kilometres away in Argentina when the verdict is announced on Saturday following a two-day hearing behind closed doors at FIFA’s futuristic headquarters in the hills above Zurich.
The investigation, led by Namibian judge Petrus Damaseb, has already suffered leaks of confidential information to the media, prompting Bin Hammam to claim that a campaign has been waged against him by unnamed enemies within FIFA.
“With just a few days to go before my hearing, there can be no doubt there has been a campaign waged within certain quarters to ensure that I am seen to be guilty and eliminated from football in the court of public opinion, even before my hearing has started,” Bin Hammam wrote on his personal website on Thursday.

“Does it not surprise anyone that, although I have been suspended for the last seven weeks from involvement in all football-related activities... for allegedly bribing individuals, none of those who it is claimed received those alleged inducements, have faced similar action?” he asked.
The investigations centre around a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) in Port of Spain, Trinidad on May 10-11 where Bin Hammam was accused of offering cash in exchange for votes in the June 1 presidential election.
Former CONCACAF president Jack Warner was also suspended for his part in the alleged bribery and both men were provisionally suspended three days before the vote for the FIFA presidency.

Candidacy withdrawn
Bin Hammam had withdrawn his candidacy hours before he was banned, leaving the way clear for Blatter to be re-elected unopposed securing 186 of the 203 votes cast.
Neither Bin Hammam nor Warner attended the vote in Zurich, as they became the latest members of FIFA’s 24-man executive committee to be tainted by allegations of corruption.
Four members of the committee, including Warner and Bin Hammam, have been suspended for corruption in the last year while accusations of wrongdoing have been levelled against another six.
Warner, who had promised to unleash a “tsunami” against FIFA, later resigned after 28 years with the world governing body and the investigation against him was dropped, with FIFA saying he would be presumed innocent.

This raised more eyebrows, although FIFA said its hands were tied.
“FIFA only has jurisdiction on its affiliated members. If a person leaves or resigns from an association, FIFA has no jurisdiction on that person anymore,” it said.
“Hence the Ethics Committee had legally no other option than to close the proceedings (against Warner). However, should that person come back to football, the investigation would be automatically re-opened.”
Bin Hammam is expected to give evidence on Friday along with CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, who were all provisionally suspended by the ethics committee on May 29.
Minguell and Sylvester are charged with breaching FIFA’s Ethics Code.
FIFA said the three officials had received the report on the investigation conducted by the committee and have been invited to present their position in writing before Friday’s start.