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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)—FIFA executive Mohamed bin Hammam plans to appeal against his suspension over bribery allegations, claiming Monday that he was being “punished before I am found guilty.”

A FIFA ethics committee on Sunday provisionally suspended bin Hammam and FIFA vice president Jack Warner pending a full inquiry into allegations Caribbean football leaders were paid $40,000 each to back the Qatari’s now-abandoned bid for the FIFA presidency.

In a statement released Monday, bin Hammam said he has lodged a request with FIFA to file his appeal by Tuesday so that he could be reinstated ahead of the June 1 congress where FIFA executives will vote for a president.

The 62-year-old bin Hammam had been incumbent Sepp Blatter’s only challenger but the Qatari withdrew from the race on Sunday hours before the ethics committee issued its ruling.

“The way these proceedings have been conducted is absolutely not compliant with any principles of justice. I am punished before I am found guilty,” bin Hammam said in his statement Monday.

“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.”

Valcke said in a statement that “it is fully incorrect—and quite disappointing—to say that I have an influence on the FIFA Ethics Committee and its proceedings.”

In a statement issued early Tuesday morning, the AFC confirmed that its most senior vice president, China’s Zhang Jilong, will be acting president of the confederation, according to its statutes, during bin Hammam’s provisional suspension.

“We, the members of the AFC Executive Committee, express our deepest concern at the latest developments within FIFA and that involves the AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam,” the statement said. “We will be following the investigation as it takes its course. We hope the outcome of the investigation will be in the best interests of football in Asia and beyond.”

Bin Hammam’s complaints about the process were echoed across the Middle East, where he has some of his strongest support. Football federations and sports columnists decried the ruling, complaining it was unfair and appeared to be orchestrated by Blatter to ensure he remained in office.

Newspapers in Egypt were especially critical of the 75-year-old Blatter, who is seeking a fourth term as leader of world football’s governing body.

The Al-Dustour daily said bin Hammam had “surrendered to the tyranny of Blatter.” Al-Gomhuria called the Swiss president a “sly fox who cannot be easily hunted” and compared him to the country’s longtime president, Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted from office earlier this year.

AFC vice president Yousuf al-Serkal, an ally of bin Hammam from neighboring United Arab Emirates, said he didn’t believe the charges and considered them part of a bid to remove bin Hammam from the presidential race.

“I think bin Hammam has been mistreated,” al-Serkal said. “Bin Hammam is the right person who should have been elected to the presidency of FIFA from the point of view of change.

“The way he was treated, I think it was unfair. All the allegations were just from a report. There were no evidence as such. I feel sorry for the person I have known for long time as a decent person.”

Al-Serkal and others around the region also complained that bin Hammam’s rights were violated because he was suspended before any ruling had been issued on the bribery allegations.

After a day-long hearing Sunday, the FIFA ethics panel said there was sufficient evidence to further investigate allegations that bin Hammam and Warner, the CONCACAF President, offered the bribes to more than two dozen delegates at a Caribbean football association meeting on May 10-11 in Trinidad.

The payments were allegedly made to secure votes for bin Hammam in his campaign to unseat Blatter. If found guilty, bin Hammam and Warner could be expelled from FIFA and banned for life from all football activity.

“We believe it is a very disappointing decision by the ethics committee because so far they don’t have solid evidence against bin Hammam,” said Munem Fakhoury, a former member of Jordan’s national team who is also a top football executive in the country.

“Bin Hammam is a very professional individual with an excellent record and what is happening today is truly unfair for him and for the world of football.”

Sports columnist Gamal Holail, writing in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Gomhuria, felt bin Hammam was a victim of Blatter’s effort to sideline any challengers.

“Blatter wants to defame the reputations of the honest people like Bin Hammam,” Holail wrote, “so he can remain sitting on the presidential chair for life and rule the empire of the international football until death. But his dented reputation has revealed his false essence and it is time for him to leave.”

Said al-Mlaiki, sports analyst and reporter in Iraq, said he felt most Arabs would see the allegation as part of a Blatter smear campaign—which could backfire on him in the Middle East.

“I think that Blatter has committed a mistake by targeting bin Hammam in such way because he will lose the support of some Arabic and Islamic football federations,” he said. “The timing of the actions against bin Hammam ahead of the FIFA elections arouses questions and suspicions.”

But there was at least one football federation that welcomed the investigation and would accept whatever ruling FIFA makes.

“I wish this didn’t happen but also I am happy because there is accountability for all those who might breach the law,” said Taj El-Deen Fares, the deputy head of the Syrian Football Federation. “I am afraid of the repercussions of this issue on the fame of the international federation and its unity.”

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Roufan Nahhas and Sameer N. Yacoub in Jordan and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

Follow Michael Casey on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mcasey1

Labels: Appeal, bribery, Hammam, scandal, suspension