A leaked audit report of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has found that the confederation’s former president Mohammed bin Hamman routinely handed out tens of thousands of dollars in cash to federation presidents and their relatives, including that to Nepal.

“Gaurav Thapa, whose father heads the Nepalese federation, received $100,000...,” the Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing a copy of the audit report it obtained. The audit was prepared by the international accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers and dated July 13.

But President of All Nepal Football Association Ganesh Thapa has defended the claims, saying that he had taken the money from Hammam as personal loan.

“Due to my good relation with the president, he gave me the loan from his personal account. It has nothing to do with the football, the AFC or Anfa,” he said, adding that he had already paid back the money to the president last year.

Clarifying that the details about the payment were clearly listed on page 50 of the 56-page report prepared by the accounting firm, he revealed that Hamman had run the AFC on his personal expenses when the confederation was cash-strapped in 2009-2010, and it was due to this reason the AFC suspended him on Monday, accusing him of misusing the confederation’s fund.

Thapa’s son Gaurav, who has been working at the AFC since 2007, is currently posted in London to look after the St. James Park in Newcastle—one of the Olympic Games venues—as the venue manager.

Hammam, once a candidate to oust FIFA President Sepp Blatter as the sport’s leader, on Friday had his charges for accusations to buy votes ahead of last year’s Fifa presidential election cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

The audit was especially critical of Hammam´s use of AFC accounts for personal expenses, although there was no evidence of direct payments to Hammam.

It found he spent $700,000 from AFC coffers on himself and his family, including $100,000 for his wife, $10,000 on a Bulgari watch for himself and nearly $5,000 for his daughter´s cosmetic dentistry.

Payments were also made to Asian, African and Caribbean soccer officials, including $250,000 to Jack Warner, the longtime strongman of Caribbean soccer.

“The arrangement with Mr Hammam´s use of the sundry debtors account is, in our view, highly unusual and reflects poor governance,” the audit said. “This use by Mr Hammam of the sundry debtors account continued even after the external auditor’s recommended that it be stopped. Our review indicates that it was common belief that this account was for Mr Hammam personally and all funds flowing through it were his personal monies.

“We question why Mr Hammam would conduct his personal financial transactions through the AFC´s bank accounts when the documents we have seen indicate that he already has several personal bank accounts in various countries,” the audit said.

The Asian governing body, which he has led since 2002 was advised to seek “legal advice in respect of ... whether the actions of Mr Hammam, and other parties identified in this report, constitute criminal and/or civil breaches.” Hammam was suspended for 30 days by the AFC following receipt of the report last week.

By: ekantipur