Statement from Petrus Damaseb

Reacting to allegations from Jack A. Warner against him, Petrus Damaseb has issued the following statement :

"The only thing I remember is an invitation to dinner at the palatial residence of Mr Bin Hammam while I was attending a FIFA Congress in Qatar in 2003, together with other FA presidents, and receiving a watch from Bin Hammam (a customary gift in football) which I still have and treasure and which I accepted to be a gift to me as Namibian FA president and a token and expression of his hospitality and friendship. As NFA president I received many watches as gifts either from host Associations or their functionaries or from FIFA. I was not the president of the NFA when Blatter was first elected in 1998 and had never met Blatter, Warner and Bin Hammam while they were on a ‘worldwide crusade’ (as Warner puts it) for Blatter’s election or re-election as the case may be. It is a pity that Warner has chosen to engage in a smear campaign founded on falsehoods and to cast aspersions on my character for doing my job as a volunteer to World football."

PT Damaseb
Deputy Chairman
FIFA ETHICS COMMITTEE
19 October 2011