Former FIFA and CAF Executive Committee member,Dr. Amos Adamu, has revealed why he was banned for three years by FIFA.
According to him, he was banned a Sepp Blatter influenced FIFA Ethics and Disciplinary Committee to prevent a possible probe of his corrupt involvement in the failed London bid for the 2018 World Cup.
Adamu who is also a former president of the West Africa Football Union, said all through his stay in FIFA, he never asked for cash in return for his vote the way the FIFA boss and his other top placed executives had done for years as exposed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe and Chuck Blazer’s confessional statements.
Adamu said: “It is an accepted norm in FIFA for countries bidding to host the World Cup to make promises to develop football facilities in affiliate countries which lack development. And London voluntarily chose to do that for Nigeria. The opposing bid country also made the same promises. On this I asked London to purchase all the materials for the artificial turf stadiums and send to me and never asked for money.
“Blatter banned me for two things: to pacify the angry London Bid Committee not to investigate him further and also due to a $30 million debt owed the FIFA Security Committee by the Nigerian government incurred ahead of the 2009 U-17 World Cup. The surety to pay was signed by late President Umaru Yar’Adua, while former President Goodluck Jonathan refused to pay.”
Adamu noted that Blatter’s decision to resign as FIFA president was a tactical move to prevent any possible move to investigate him deeper.
He added: “There is a FIFA regulation under the Swiss Law which says once you resign all investigations against you stops. The Swiss government has also been having problems with Blatter on issues of corruption but they are incapacitated, as there is another law that prevents them from investigating any international organisation domiciled in the country.”
Adamu, whose return to CAF duties was announced last week, noted that Blatter’s resignation and decision to leave office in March 2016 are aimed at covering some obvious corruption tracks together with the double standard FIFA Secretary General, Jerome Valcke, who shockingly defended the $10 million collected from South Africa as money for football development.
He said: “I saw Sepp Blatter in Cairo during the CAF Elective Congress some weeks back and I told him his time in FIFA would soon be up, he didn’t believe me.”