Soccer: Bin Hammam to appeal FIFA suspension

ZURICH (Kyodo) - Asian Football Confederation President Mohamed bin Hammam will appeal the provisional ban handed down to him by FIFA's ethics committee ahead of Wednesday's Congress.
Bin Hammam announced his appeal just hours before FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who unlike the Qatari was cleared by the ethics committee, was scheduled to hold a press conference on Monday following an executive committee meeting.
''The way these proceedings have been conducted is absolutely not compliant with any principles of justice,'' bin Hammam said in a statement.
''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 Jerome 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,'' the statement said.
Bin Hammam, alongside FIFA vice president Jack Warner, was suspended over allegations of bribing Caribbean Football Union members in exchange for their votes in Wednesday's presidential election.
The ethics committee cleared Blatter of charges of failing to report the bribes. With bin Hammam having withdrawn, Blatter is set to be reelected unopposed to the FIFA presidency for a fourth straight term.