Asian football chief Bin Hammam and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner are to appear before FIFA's ethics committee on Sunday to face the bribery allegations. Both men have denied wrongdoing and suggested they are victims of an election tactic to boost Blatter's chances.

Blatter said however in his column on insideworldfootball.biz: "To now assume that the present ordeal of my opponent were to fill me with some sort of perverse satisfaction or that this entire matter was somehow masterminded by me is ludicrous and completely reprehensible.

"I am shocked, saddened and deeply unhappy about the charges levelled against a man whose friendship I enjoyed for many years. It gives me no pleasure to see him suffer public disgrace before an investigation would even have started."

The pair will face long bans if the allegations - made by fellow executive committee member Chuck Blazer - are proven and Blatter commended the American for coming forward.

He added: "I am all for the zero-tolerance policy I announced a while back and will continue to fight corruption in football to the best of my ability.

"But I also admire Chuck Blazer's civic courage and an initiative that resulted from reports he received from within the confederation he administers as its secretary general.

"I am horrified by the most recent developments that are shedding a very bad light on FIFA yet again: no sane person can take pleasure in this development, and no decent person will enjoy the troubles of others, be that friend or foe."

Blatter pledged reforms of FIFA if he is re-elected next week and said he is hopeful FIFA "can weather the storm of its own creation".

In a bizarre ending to his column, the 75-year-old invoked a parable from his homeland of Switzerland.

He said: "When a Swiss farmer's neighbour has a cow while he has none, the less fortunate farmer will work twice as hard so that one day he can buy a cow as well. When another farmer, elsewhere, on an island, say, has no cow but his neighbour does, that farmer will kill the neighbour's cow out of sheer malice.

"I'd rather be a Swiss farmer, like it or not."

New details emerged today of the file of evidence compiled against the two FIFA members - it can be revealed they includes copies of emails sent by Warner seeking to arrange a special congress for Bin Hammam to meet associations from the CONCACAF federation.

The file, compiled by US lawyer John Collins at the request of Blazer, includes signed affidavits from several witnesses who allege they were offered bundles of cash of up to 40,000 US dollars (#24,400).

It can now be disclosed that an email trail also forms part of the evidence file. The emails show Bin Hammam requesting that Warner organise a special congress to meet associations from CONCACAF, the confederation of countries from north and central American and the Caribbean.

The request was for a special congress to be held before the planned CONCACAF Congress in Miami on May 3, and to be held outside of the USA. Warner then emailed Blazer, who is also secretary general of CONCACAF, saying: "Let's make this happen", according to the evidence file.

Blazer however blocked the move, and Bin Hammam did not attend the CONCACAF Congress in Miami, citing visa problems even though he has a diplomatic passport. Warner instead organised for a meeting of the 25 Caribbean countries in Trinidad on May 10 - and it is at this conference, it is claimed, that the money was handed over for "development projects".

Some of the bundles of cash were accepted, the file says, but some of those who refused to take any money approached Blazer, who then instructed Collins. The lawyer interviewed witnesses, took affidavits and also collected photographic evidence for a file that was then sent to FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke earlier this week.

FIFA today announced that they will hold a news conference in Zurich on Sunday evening following the outcome of the ethics committee hearing.