Mohamed bin Hammam said on Monday he will appeal against his provisional suspension from FIFA, in the hope of taking part in the governing body’s congress on June 1.
The Qatari head of the Asian Football Confederation, who was temporarily banned from all soccer activities by a FIFA ethics committee on Sunday, said in a statement on his website that he had been “punished before I am found guilty”.
The ethics committee said he and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner had a case to answer over allegations that Caribbean delegates were paid in return for promises to vote for Bin Hammam in the FIFA election, which he had been due to contest with Sepp Blatter before withdrawing from the campaign.
However, allegations against FIFA president Sepp Blatter were dropped after the ethics committee decided he had no case to answer.
Blatter was included after bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), said the FIFA president, who is standing for a fourth term, might have known about cash payments to delegates.
Bin Hammam said: “There are many open questions: What was the discussion in the Ethics Committee and how did the Ethics Committee come to its conclusion? There are many other questions which need to be answered and transparency is urgently needed.”
He added: “The way these proceedings have been conducted is absolutely not compliant with any principles of justice. I am punished before I am found guilty.
“I get the impression that the outcome of these proceedings had been defined from the very beginning as it has been made evident at the press conference on Sunday evening at which FIFA General Secretary Jérôme Valcke showed his bias very clearly.
“This is not acceptable as the FIFA Ethics Committee is supposed to be a fully independent body. Therefore, I also expect the further investigation to be influenced and manipulated.”
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