Soccer: Fifa official admits reselling tickets

BERLIN - A member of Fifa's executive committee has admitted selling World Cup tickets at three times their face value and has been ordered to leave Germany as soon as possible, world soccer's governing body has said.

Ismail Bhamjee of Botswana has signed a statement admitting selling 12 tickets for England's match against Trinidad & Tobago on Thursday for 300 euros ($610) each, three times the face value, Fifa said in a statement.

Bhamjee, 62, the president of the Botswana Football Association who has been a member of the executive committee for eight years, was told to resign from all Fifa World Cup duties.

He was due to leave the executive committee next January after failing to be re-elected at the congress of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo in January.

Although he is not a member of the World Cup organising committee, he would have other Fifa -related duties in Germany.

Executive committee members are paid US$500 ($810) a day expenses while on official Fifa duty. In addition they are paid 100,000 US dollars a year while members of the board.

"I am very disappointed about the conduct of a member of the Fifa executive committee," Fifa president Sepp Blatter said. "In such a situation, Fifa acts immediately and firmly."

Fifa said it had been presented with evidence of Bhamjee's actions by a British Sunday newspaper, the Mail on Sunday.

"As an immediate reaction to this behaviour, Fifa's emergency committee under the chairmanship of President Blatter decided that Mr Bhamjee had to immediately resign from all Fifa World Cup-related duties and leave Germany at the earliest possible moment," the statement said.

Bhamjee said in the same Fifa statement: "I deeply regret this incorrect act and apologise to Fifa for violating the relevant terms and conditions governing the sale of tickets for the 2006 Fifa World Cup."

This is the second time in the last seven months that a member of the Fifa executive committee has been in trouble for violating the code of conduct that applies to its officials.

Fifa vice-president Jack Warner of Trinidad & Tobago, who is a member of the World Cup organising committee, was found guilty of a conflict of interest by Fifa 's committee for ethics and fair play in February.

However, Warner did not receive any punishment from Fifa who decided to close the case against him because Warner had sold his shares in a travel agency that was at the core of the case against him.

Warner's problems began last November when a local newspaper revealed that Warner's travel agency, Simpaul Travel Service, had obtained exclusive rights to sell tickets to the World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago.

Fifa found that Warner was guilty of a conflict of interest because he was simultaneously a special advisor to the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation and one of the owners of Simpaul.

- REUTERS