FIFA ban two committee members
Reuters - Thursday 18 November 2010, 10:31
ZURICH - Two FIFA executive committee
members were banned and fined on Thursday, one for bribery, over
allegations they had offered to sell their votes in the contest
to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Four other officials were also banned and fined in an
unprecedented move by football's world governing body, which has
been shaken by the case and is under huge pressure to show that
the contest will be clean and transparent.
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Nigerian Amos Adamu was banned from all football related
activities for three years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs
($10,130) for breaches of five articles of FIFA's ethics code
including one on bribery.
His fellow executive committee member Reynald Temarii of
Tahiti, president of the Oceania Football Confederation, was
banned for one year and fined 5,000 Swiss francs for breaching
articles on general conduct and loyalty.
The others officials included Slim Aloulou, chairman of the
committee that settles disputes between clubs, players and
coaches, and the previously disgraced Ismael Bhamjee.
In 2006, Botswana's Bhamjee was sent home from the World Cup
in Germany and subsequently quit the executive committee for
selling match tickets at three times their face value.
COLLUSION DISMISSED
A further claim by British newspaper The Sunday Times that
some bidding countries were guilty of collusion before the December 2 vote in Zurich was dismissed by the ethics committee.
It decided allegations of vote-trading between
Spain/Portugal, who are bidding for 2018, and Qatar, who are
bidding for 2022, were unfounded.
The decision means only 22 executive committee members,
instead of the expected 24, will vote when FIFA chooses the
hosts for the two tournaments.
"For as long as I am in the ethics committee, we will have a
zero tolerance policy for all violations of standards," said its
chairman Claudio Sulser after a three-day hearing.
"We don't want cheaters, we don't want doping, we don't want
abuses to be accepted," added Sulser, a former Switzerland
international.
He added: "The damage caused to FIFA's image is very great.
When one talks of FIFA, there is generally a negative attitude
out there, talk of corruption."
Adamu and Tahiti had been provisionally suspended following
allegations by The Sunday Times that they offered to sell their
votes to undercover reporters posing as lobbyists for an
American consortium.
FIFA said Adamu and Temarii had breached general ethics
rules as well as article 9.1 which demands "fiduciary duty" to
the sport's governing body.
Adamu was also found to be in breach of article 11.1 which
reads: "Officials may not accept bribes; in other words, any
gifts or other advantages that are offered, promised or sent to
them to incite breach of duty or dishonest conduct for the
benefit of a third party shall be refused."
ADAMU APPEAL
Adamu plans to take his case to FIFA's appeals committee.
"I am profoundly disappointed with the ethics committee's
findings and had honestly believed I would be exonerated of any
charges by now," he said in a statement released by his lawyer
and reported by the BBC.
"I am innocent of all the charges levelled against me by the
Ethics Committee and I completely refute the decision they have
made.
"I will be lodging a full appeal against it with immediate
effect."
He was supported by the Nigerian government.
"In as much as the government does not want to be seen as
interfering in football matters, we believe he was not given
fair hearing," Kayode Thomas, spokesman for Nigeria's Sports
Minister, told Reuters from the capital Abuja.
The case has cast a shadow over the race to host the two
World Cup tournaments.
Russia and England are bidding to host the 2018 World Cup
along with joint bids from Spain/Portugal and
Belgium/Netherlands. Japan, South Korea, Australia, United
States and Qatar are candidates for 2022.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke confirmed the vote
would go ahead with two executive committee members short and
said there was almost no chance of changing the controversial
decision to choose the two hosts in the same vote.
"Yes, there will be only 22 members for the 2018 and 2022
votes," he said. "It's 99 percent certain the executive
committee will not spilt the 2018 and 2022 decisions, as was
decided from day one."
Tunisia's Aloulou - chairman of FIFA's dispute resolution
chamber and a member of the players' status committee - was
banned for two years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs.
He was found to have broken rules on general conduct and
loyalty and of failing to report evidence of misconduct.
The other three FIFA officials - Ahongalu Fusimalohi,
Amadou Diakite and Bhamjee - were all found guilty of the same
offences, plus bribery.
Fusimalohi, general secretary of the Tonga FA, and Diakite
from Mali, a member of the FIFA referees' committee, were banned
for three years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs each.
Bhamjee, an honorary member of the Confederation of African
Football (CAF), was banned for four years and fined 10,000 Swiss
francs.
Qatar's bid team welcomed the decision to dismiss the
allegations of collusion.
"We welcome today's announcement... confirming that Qatar
2022 has completely abided by FIFA's bidding rules and
regulations," bid CEO Hassan Al-Thawadi said in a statement.
"We were always confident of this outcome because we have
conducted ourselves throughout the campaign adhering to the
highest ethical standards.