Temarii said he met FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Sunday to ask him to launch an ethics investigation, after the London Sunday Times filmed him saying he wanted NZ $3 million ($ 2.3 million) to fund a football academy in Auckland.
FIFA’s independent ethics panel is scheduled to discuss his case on Wednesday, the Oceania Football Confederation president said. “I’m confident about my integrity but I made a mistake by talking in that way,” Temarii said in an interview at a Zurich hotel. “I asked the FIFA president to investigate. I gave him a letter. It’s important for me that the ethics committee investigates how I manage my relations with bidders.”
Blatter has promised an “in-depth investigation” into allegations that Temarii, from Tahiti, and Nigerian FIFA executive member Amos Adamu offered to sell their votes in a poll scheduled for December 2 to decide which countries will host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022.
In an open letter to his colleagues on FIFA’s 24-man executive panel which will choose the hosts, Blatter said the Sunday Times’ allegation is a “very unpleasant situation” for football’s governing body.
“The information in the article has created a very negative impact on FIFA and on the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups,” Blatter said.