Bin Hammam calls on FIFA to probe Blatter

Bin Hamman, who will face an ethics committee hearing on Sunday over a report of possible bribery along with CONCACAF president Jack Warner, questioned the timing of the investigation and said it could be part of a plan to force him to withdraw from the June 1 election.

This was denied by Blatter who said he got no joy from the allegations against 62-year-old Asian Football Confederation head Bin Hammam, describing the Qatari as a "man whose friendship I enjoyed for many years."

The pair came face to face on Thursday at a scheduled meeting of the FIFA finance committee at the federation's imposing headquarters in an exclusive Zurich suburb, a spokesman said.

Finance committee chairman Julio Grondona told reporters: "There was no problem between them, they even hugged in the middle of the room."

Blazer, who like Bin Hammam and Warner is a member of FIFA's powerful executive committee, reported possible violations of the federation's code of ethics including possible bribery, FIFA said.

The report sent to FIFA's ethics committee was prepared for Blazer by Chicago-based lawyer John Collins, a sports law specialist who has worked with the U.S. Soccer Federation.

"I have written a lengthy report which has been submitted to FIFA," said Collins, who declined to comment on the content of the report or the kinds of documentation it contains.

"The timing of the accusations so close to the election of FIFA president on June 1, 2011 suggests that they are part of a plan to damage Mr Bin Hammam and force him to withdraw as a candidate for the FIFA presidency," said a statement on Bin Hammam's website.

"The accusations also contain statements according to which Mr Blatter... was informed of, but did not oppose, payments allegedly made to members of the Caribbean Football Union.

"Mr Bin Hammam has therefore requested that the investigation by the ethics committee be extended to include Mr Blatter himself."

"To now assume that the present ordeal of my opponent were to fill me with some sort of perverse satisfaction or that this entire matter was somehow masterminded by me is ludicrous and completely reprehensible," he said

"I am shocked, saddened and deeply unhappy about the charges levelled against a man whose friendship I enjoyed for many years," said Blatter, who is standing for a fourth term.

"It gives me no pleasure to see him suffer public disgrace before an investigation would even have started."

He also praised Blazer, CONCACAF's general secretary since 1990.

"I also admire Chuck Blazer's civic courage and an initiative that resulted from reports he received from within the confederation he administers as