FORMER TRINIDAD and Tobago football team captain and midfielder David Nakhid has denied ever receiving any money from disgraced Qatari football official Mohammed Bin Hammam.
His denial comes in the wake of the newspaper report, which cited documents in which money was transferred by Bin Hammam to someone bearing the name David Nakhid.
Nakhid threw his hat in the ring recently seeking the presidency of FIFA in its forthcoming elections. But the 51-year-old former TT footballer was forced out of the FIFA race last week due to a nomination error.
According to the Daily Mail, paperwork summarises money distributed from bank accounts controlled by Bin Hammam and includes payments to someone with the name David Nakhid.
The transfers in question include a sum of $11,390 (£7,400) in April 2009 and a payment of $11,000 (£7,100) in June 2009.
But the newspaper reports further, that Nakhid, when showed the details purporting to show money transferred to someone with a name similar to his, said, “I have no idea what that is … I’m ready to show my accounts to anyone. I’ve never even met Mohammed bin Hammam, ever, in my life. I can’t imagine what that (reference) is in 2009, or at any other time. I’ve never met the guy. Never.”
In an exclusive interview last week with the Mail on Sunday, Nakhid said his bid for the FIFA presidency was being funded by “family and friends.” Bin Hammam, a former president of the Asian Football Confederation and former vice-president of FIFA has been banned for football for life amidst reports of a series of bribery and conflict of interest scandals.
Nakhid, according to the Mail report, was widely perceived as a breath of fresh air in the FIFA presidential race. He played at club level in Switzerland, the USA and Sweden among other places, played for his country, and launched his presidential candidacy on a platform of reform, transparency and redistribution.
Since 2006 he has run a football academy in Lebanon.
Nakhid’s nomination for the FIFA presidency was supported by five Caribbean football associations.
However, last week, FIFA announced his candidacy had been deemed ineligible because one of the nominating FAS — the US Virgin Islands — had nominated more than one candidate, which is against the rules.
Therefore the USVI’s nomination for him was effectively struck off, meaning he did not have the five required nominations to continue.
Nakhid is appealing to FIFA’s electoral committee, saying they should have known about the multiple nominations, and given him a chance to rectify it, before striking him out.