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Fifa crisis: claims of brown envelopes stuffed with new $100 bills

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Pictures of a brown envelope containing $40,000 (£24,000) have been released by a Caribbean football official

Pictures of a brown envelope containing $40,000 (£24,000) have been released by a Caribbean football official who said he was offered the cash after a presentation by the suspended Fifa presidential candidate, Mohamed bin Hammam.

Fred Lunn, vice-president of the Bahamas FA, said on Monday he was presented with the cash as a "gift" after an address by Bin Hammam to members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) on 10 May. Inside the envelope was $40,000 in new $100 bills.

Bin Hammam has been suspended by Fifa over allegations he used bribes to secure votes for his presidential bid.

CFU members were invited to a meeting at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Trinidad to hear Bin Hammam present his manifesto. Afterwards, officials from the 25 associations were asked to attend a conference room in order to pick up "a gift", according to an affidavit sent to the ethics committee.

Lunn's affidavit said he went up to the room, where he was handed a large brown envelope. When he opened it, he said, "stacks of $100 [bills] fell out".

Lunn said he was not authorised to accept it but was urged to do so by a CFU official. He texted his association's president, Anton Sealey, who called him and told him to return the gift. Copies of these texts were sent to the ethics committee, which has suspended Bin Hammam, the Fifa Vice-President Jack Warner and two CFU officials: Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester.

Lunn attended a meeting the next morning in which delegates were addressed by Warner, who is head of the CFU. Warner allegedly said "he had instructed Mr Bin Hammam to bring the cash equivalent of any gift he had intended to bring for the people attending this meeting".


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