By Andrew Warshaw

May 2 – The row over alleged dirty tricks from within the FIFA administration to have Morocco thrown out of the 2026 World Cup bid process has prompted former Senegalese international El Hadji Diouf to further denounce claims that he has a family link with FIFA’s number two Fatma Samoura.

Last week, just six days after apparently being reported to FIFA’s ethics committee for an alleged conflict of interest, Samoura was reportedly told she has no case to answer, fuelling speculation of a botched behind-the-scenes plot.

The BBC had previously revealed that members of FIFA’s World Cup bid evaluation task force, all high-ranking allies of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, had reported Samoura for having an undeclared family link with Diouf who is an ambassador for Morocco’s 2026 bid

Samoura, FIFA’s general secretary, described the allegations as “totally ridiculous and baseless” raising the crucial question of who launched the complaint in the first place and what was the motivation behind it.

Diouf also rejected the claims but has now come out with his most strongly worded statement to date.

“I want to deny all the false allegations that there is a pseudo relationship between FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura and myself,” Diouf was quoted as saying. “I cannot accept these types of rumour (that are) without any foundation.”

“Madame Samoura is a compatriot for whom I have a lot of admiration. I consider her a big sister. We both share the same passion.”

It is the interpretation of the word sister which is understood to be at the heart of the complaint about an alleged family relationship between the pair. Whoever was responsible for making the claims against Samoura (and fingers are pointing towards one Task Force member in particular) is believed to have done so after hearing Diouf refer to her as “sister”, a somewhat spurious leap to what has now been identified as an erroneous conclusion.

Yet no-one appears to be carrying the can for such an ill-thought-out process. Although Samoura’s full name is Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura, Diouf is a common name in parts of north Africa and that’s where the apparent link lacked credibility.

“The family name Diouf is that of a very large number of our Senegalese compatriots,” said Diouf. “Are all Smiths in England considered to be of the same family?”

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