Sepp Blatter misses Wembley final over bribery hearing

SEPP Blatter, the most powerful official in world football, pulled out of attending the Champions League final last night ahead of a bribery hearing that has rocked the sport's governing body.

The FIFA president cancelled plans to travel to London just hours before he appears before the organisation's ethics committee as part of a corruption investigation along with Mohamed Bin Hamman. Blatter's representative said: "He has other things on his mind and hasn't got the time".

Blatter and Bin Hamman, Qatari president of the Asian Football Confederation, will appear with FIFA vice-president Jack Warner before a committee in Zurich today.

The row centres on allegations that Bin Hamman and Warner paid tens of thousands of pounds to members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to secure votes in the presidential election. Bin Hamman says Blatter knew of some payments, itself a violation of FIFA's rules.