GENEVA (AP) – Asian Olympic leader Sheik Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah of Kuwait has denied claims made in a U.S. federal court that he paid six-figure bribes to FIFA voters.
“Sheikh Ahmad is very surprised by such allegations and strongly denies any wrongdoing,” the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said in a statement issued on Saturday on behalf of its president.
The sheik’s influential roles in sports politics include the OCA presidency since 1991, a FIFA Council seat since 2015, and leadership of ANOC, the global group of national Olympic bodies, since 2012. He has been an International Olympic Committee member for 24 years.
Long seen as a key power broker in Olympic and soccer elections, Sheik Ahmad has been drawn into the sprawling U.S. federal investigation of bribery and corruption soccer revealed two years ago.
FIFA audit committee member Richard Lai, an American citizen from Guam, pleaded guilty on Thursday to wire fraud conspiracy charges related to bribes that helped officials gain influence in international soccer.