FIFA bans bin Hammam for life in bribery case

Mohamed bin Hammam's downfall from being one of soccer's most powerful men to a disgraced outcast was completed Saturday when FIFA banned the Qatari official for life for his role in a bribery scandal.

FIFA found Bin Hammam guilty of bribing presidential election voters just months after he helped secure 2022 World Cup hosting rights for his tiny Gulf homeland. The scandal led to him having to abandon his campaign to unseat FIFA President Sepp Blatter, and ultimately led to the veteran executive committee member becoming the most senior official convicted of corruption in the governing body's 107-year history.

A FIFA ethics panel ruled that the Qatari candidate conspired to pay Caribbean officials US$40,000 cash bribes in May in exchange for their support in the election.

The verdict after a two-day hearing "was in keeping with the declared policy of the committee to show zero tolerance of unethical behaviour," panel chairman Petrus Damaseb said.

Damaseb also called on FIFA to consider opening cases against three more executive committee members who joined bin Hammam on a fateful campaign visit to Trinidad.

Bin Hammam's lawyer said he maintained his innocence and rejected the findings based on "so-called circumstantial evidence."

"He will continue to fight his case through the legal routes that are open to him," lead counsel Eugene Gulland told reporters.

Bin Hammam can challenge his life ban at the FIFA appeals body and then the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"We are confident of the strength of our case and invite FIFA to make available now to the media a full transcript of these proceedings," Gulland said in a prepared statement.

Bin Hammam has claimed the case was politically motivated to stop him challenging Blatter, who was re-elected unopposed last month three days after the Asian Football Confederation president withdrew his candidacy.

Bin Hammam didn't co-operate with a FIFA investigation or attend the hearing. He wrote on his website Friday, while the FIFA panel sat in session, that he expected a guilty verdict.

FIFA also suspended two Caribbean Football Union staffers, Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, for one year for their part in distributing the bribes at a May 10-11 conference in Trinidad.

FIFA faces further focus on corruption in its ranks as Damaseb, a judge from Namibia, called for a second wave of investigations.

Damaseb's five-man panel asked FIFA's legal department to prepare cases against officials who attended bin Hammam's campaign stop at a Port of Spain hotel.

Those present included executive committee members Worawi Makudi of Thailand, Vernon Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka and Hany Abou Rida from Egypt.

Caribbean soccer leaders believed to have taken bin Hammam's bribes, and denying to FIFA investigators that any corruption took place, are also under suspicion.

In a separate judgment, FIFA issued a warning to another executive committee member Chuck Blazer, who commissioned a dossier of evidence including statements from Caribbean whistleblowers which sparked the explosive case.

Damaseb said Blazer was wrong to have suggested at a May 30 meeting in Zurich that CFU members were "under investigation" at that time.

FIFA's panel dismissed an additional CFU complaint that Blazer's comment was racially motivated.

Bin Hammam's lawyer aimed a further apparent barb at Blazer, who has represented the United States in FIFA's high command since 1996.

"Our case has clearly demonstrated (FIFA's evidence) was bogus and founded on lies told by a senior FIFA official," Gulland said.

Bin Hammam is the third serving FIFA executive committee member banned from soccer for ethics violations in the past nine months.

A fourth, FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, dodged the panel's judgment by resigning from all of his soccer positions last month before answering charges about his part in the bribery plot.

Damaseb dismissed suggestions that Warner, who also surrendered his jobs as president of the CONCACAF confederation and CFU, had disrespected FIFA's legal process.

"I think everybody would have wanted him to appear, to stand and justify and … explain his conduct, and he chose not to do that," the judge said. "(Warner) is presumed innocent."

The case centred on bin Hammam's campaign visit to Warner's native Trinidad to lobby CFU members. The island nations hold 25 of FIFA's 208 votes and were considered key to defeating Blatter.

However, whistleblowers revealed they sat through bin Hammam's pitch at a Port of Spain hotel, then lined up outside a different room to collect a "gift." Inside, CFU staff handed over brown envelopes stuffed with $40,000 in four piles of $100 bills.

Blazer's witnesses alleged that Warner told them he advised the Qatari candidate to bring cash which could be spent as they chose.

FIFA's code of ethics prohibits officials accepting any cash gifts.

A leaked report said FIFA investigators found circumstantial evidence that bin Hammam provided the cash, but not a direct link.

Bin Hammam has acknowledged transferring $360,000 to the CFU to pay for the conference, including delegates' travel and accommodation expenses. He refused requests to disclose bank account records and other financial details to Freeh's investigators.