FIFA vice-president and Works Minister Jack Warner was yesterday suspended by the world governing body for football as an investigation was launched into allegations of bribery for FIFA presidential votes.

A five-member FIFA committee chaired by Petrus Damaseb at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland suspended Warner, FIFA presidential hopeful Mohamed Bin Hammam and Caribbean Football Union (CFU) members Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester.

Bin Hammam yesterday announced he was abandoning his bid for FIFA president during elections scheduled to be held this week.

Warner met the committee at noon in Zurich yesterday.

He said news of the provisional suspension "came as a shock and a surprise" to him, especially since he said he learned of his suspension from the international media and had not received any official word from FIFA.

Warner made the comments in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

But even as Warner suggested he was blindsided by the unexpected blow, he fired back at other members of FIFA and the ethics committee.

He claimed that the decision to suspend both him and former FIFA presidential hopeful Mohamed Bin Hammam was "politically motivated".

"The complaints made in this matter are politically motivated against Mr Bin Hammam and me and are designed, among other things, to cause serious prejudice and damage to both Mr Bin Hammam and myself at one of the most critical times for the FIFA," he said.

"The decision to suspend me is an abuse of the process and achieves no real purpose as stated in the decision and again demonstrates the bias of this enquiry," Warner said.

Warner cited several instances of bias after learning of the ethics committee's decision, even lashing out at FIFA's general secretary Jerome Valcke. Warner said he recognised the battle for FIFA's presidency between current president Sepp Blatter and hopeful, Hammam, was "getting out of hand" and wrote to Valcke on the issue. Warner told Valcke that the on-going fight for the presidency could alienate the Arab world and that he (Warner) would advise Bin Hammam to drop out of the race. Valcke's response was to advise Warner to use his influence as CONCACAF president to sway Caribbean voters in Blatter's favour.

In Zurich yesterday, FIFA's Damaseb said he and the members of the panel were "satisfied that there is a case to be answered", following allegations of bribery revealed by FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer.

"Both Bin Hammam and Warner were provisionally banned from future activity in football while a full investigation is carried out," Damaseb said.

"The critical consideration is to ensure the investigation is not compromised and that is why we have chosen to provisionally suspend them, even if we are not here to say whether they are guilty or not guilty," he said.

But while Warner's run in FIFA may hang in the balance current president Sepp Blatter was cleared of all allegations levelled at him by Qatari Bin Hammam.

Damaseb said there will be a full enquiry into allegations of bribery and that those officials accused should be suspended ahead of that inquiry.

Bin Hammam counter-attacked and requested that the panel investigate Blatter on grounds that he knew of alleged bribe attempts and did nothing about it.

But Damaseb said the panel received "lots of confirmation from every individual conceivable" that there was no evidence to take action against Blatter, who has been in office since 1998.

With the presidential re-election due to take place on Wednesday, Blatter will now run unchallenged for the post.

—Read Warner's full statement