Asian Olympic chief denies FIFA bribery claims
Asian Olympic leader Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah of Kuwait has denied claims made in a U.S. federal court that he paid six-figure bribes to FIFA voters.
“Sheikh Ahmad is very surprised by such allegations and strongly denies any wrongdoing,” the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said in a statement issued Saturday on behalf of its president.
The sheikh’s influential roles in sports politics include the OCA presidency since 1991, a FIFA Council seat since 2015, and president of ANOC, the global group of national Olympic bodies, since 2012. He has been an International Olympic Committee member for a quarter of a century.
Long seen as a key power broker in Olympic and soccer votes, Sheikh Ahmad is under pressure just nine days before he faces re-election for his own FIFA seat in a poll of Asian soccer federations.
A FIFA panel which rules on candidates’ integrity is weighing whether to remove the Kuwaiti royal from the ballot paper in Manama, Bahrain.
A person familiar with the process told The Associated Press that FIFA’s Review Committee began looking at Sheikh Ahmad’s case on Friday. The person requested anonymity because the process is confidential.
The review started one day after a FIFA audit panel member admitted in a federal court in Brooklyn that he took $850,000 in bribes from Kuwaiti officials to buy his influence and help recruit other FIFA voters.
A second FIFA judicial body, the FIFA ethics committee, can also take the sheikh out of the election by provisionally suspending him.
Sheikh Ahmad has informed FIFA’s ethics investigators and “put himself at their disposal,” the IOC said in a statement Saturday.
“And even though it is not related to any IOC matter he has also informed the IOC Chief Ethics and Compliance officer,” said Mark Adams, spokesman for IOC President Thomas Bach.
Sheikh Ahmad was widely hailed as a “kingmaker” for his winning streak in Olympic elections. This week he became one of the highest profile sports officials drawn into the sprawling U.S. federal investigation of bribery and corruption soccer revealed two years ago.