Bin Hammam withdraws from the FIFA presidency

Bin Hammam, ended his campaign amid a bitter fall-out over allegations of corruption The battle for FIFA\'s top job was thrown into further turmoil Sunday when president Sepp Blatter\'s main rival for the post, Mohamed bin Hammam, ended his campaign amid a bitter fall-out over allegations of corruption.

Bin Hammam\'s decision came just hours before both the Qatari and Blatter were scheduled to face the ethics committee of football\'s world governing body over bribery allegations.
As Blatter was due to respond to claims that he knew about cash payments at the centre of a probe targeting bin Hammam, the latter ended his campaign saying he was \"hurt and disappointed\".
\"It saddens me that standing up for the causes that I believed in has come at a great price -- the degradation of FIFA\'s reputation,\" said 61-year-old bin Hammam, who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform and had waged a bitter war of words with long-serving Blatter. Profile of Mohamed bin Hammam

Bin Hammam had demanded the corruption investigation be widened to include Blatter on Thursday as the two men prepared to contest a June 1 election for control of FIFA.
Two days earlier, bin Hammam, FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and two Caribbean Football Union officials had been summoned to the ethics committee to answer corruption allegations.
Bin Hammam and Warner were targeted after Chuck Blazer, general secretary of regional football body CONCACAF, reported possible misdeeds during a May 10 and 11 meeting in Trinidad. Related article: FIFA a \'corrupt shambles,\' British ex-minister says
British media reports said bin Hammam and Warner are accused of offering $40,000 (28,000 euros) in cash gifts to national associations at the Trinidad conference in return for their votes in next week\'s presidential election.

A FIFA statement on Friday said Blatter, 75, had been summoned to appear before the ethics committee to answer claims that Warner had told him in advance of alleged payments made at the meeting.
Blatter issued a brief statement on Friday following FIFA\'s announcement, saying: \"The facts will speak for themselves\".
Blatter has denied suggestions from bin Hammam that he orchestrated the charges against the man seeking to unseat him, dismissing them as \"ludicrous\".
Writing on his blog Saturday, bin Hammam vowed to clear his name of \"baseless allegations\".
Warner, meanwhile, insisted Saturday he had not committed \"a single iota of wrongdoing\" and warned that a \"tsunami\" will hit FIFA when corruption allegations are investigated in the coming days.
\"I tell you something, in the next couple of days you will see a football tsunami that will hit FIFA and the world that will shock you,\" Warner said.
\"The time has come when I must stop playing dead so you\'ll see it. It\'s coming, trust me. You\'ll see it by now and Monday.\"
The civil war which has erupted within FIFA\'s echelons follows weeks of corruption allegations involving the organisation\'s officials.

FIFA opened a separate inquiry after accusations made in the British parliament regarding the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Former English Football Association chairman David Triesman told a committee he had witnessed \"improper and unethical\" behaviour by four FIFA voters -- including Warner -- while campaigning for England\'s failed 2018 World Cup bid.
On Monday, Qatar denied claims aired in the committee that it paid large bribes to secure its shock victory in the battle to host the 2022 tournament. Bin Hammam, who was instrumental in the bid, has also rejected the allegations.

British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson called for the FIFA election to be suspended and the body to follow the International Olympic Committee which brought in new rules after the Salt Lake City bribery scandal in 1999.
And British Prime Minister David Cameron said the workings of FIFA were \"murky\".
\"The prime minister has made it clear in public and private that he believes the workings of FIFA have become rather murky,\" a Downing Street source told The Times newspaper.