AFC General Secretary Soosay dismisses 'cover-up' claims

By Mike Collett MANAMA (Reuters) - Alex Soosay, general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), has told Reuters that "fresh allegations" he ordered documents to be hidden during a corruption probe were nothing new and had been dealt with a long time ago. Malaysian Soosay said in an interview after the AFC's Congress in the Bahraini capital that a story in the Malay Mail last Saturday that he tampered with or hid financial documents had been taken out of context. The Malaysian paper said it had obtained a video interview from July 2012 in which AFC financial director Bryan Kuan Wee Hong told a FIFA investigator Soosay had come to him to help cover up what had been going on under disgraced former AFC President Mohamed bin Hammam. The Qatari was banned from football for life by FIFA that year for his part in a bribery scandal and other repeated violations of FIFA's code of ethics. Soosay told Reuters: "As far as I am concerned, the case is closed. It was thoroughly done and dealt with and Bin Hammam was suspended. "We know who the individual is who leaked the information. It is being dealt with. "It's completely, all of a sudden taken out of context. It's election fever. But there's nothing to worry about, there's no concern. It's dealt with. "The truth is the case has been thoroughly investigated." After Soosay spoke to Reuters, the AFC issued a statement reading: "The AFC takes note of recent media allegations concerning a case dating from 2012, and is currently seeking to assess the veracity of these allegations. "Any new information will be passed on to the relevant bodies for consideration as appropriate." According to last week's report in the Malay Mail, Soosay lodged a police report in August 2012 accusing Bin Hammam of embezzling nearly $10 million. The report was published six days before Thursday's AFC congress where delegates voted in, without opposition, Bin Hammam's successor Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa for a four-year term. There were also other elections including those involving the FIFA and AFC executive committees. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)