Football: Malaysian police probe AFC graft claim

KUALA LAMPUR: Malaysian police are investigating a $10 million fraud claim arising from an audit of Asia’s football governing body that led to the suspension of its scandal-tainted president Mohamed bin Hammam. Kuala Lumpur commercial crimes investigation chief Izany Abdul Ghany said an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) official had lodged a report against a senior colleague but declined to name the accused. “The report is based on the same audit but investigations are still in preliminary stages so it would be premature to say who,” he told AFP. Izany said the report claimed that ‘give or take’ $10 million had been illegally transferred overseas from AFC accounts between February to June 2008. Bin Hammam, who has been provisionally replaced after nine years as AFC president, was suspended by the AFC last month.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2012.