Mohamed bin Hammam banned from football for life by Fifa

Mohamed bin Hammam was has been banned for life from all football activity by Fifa's ethics committee. Then, in a moment of high drama as the committee's chairman, Petrus Damaseb, exited stage left, legal counsel for the Qatari immediately took to the stage in Zurich to accuse an unnamed "senior Fifa official" of "lies".

Bin Hammam will appeal against the decision of the five-man committee after it found him guilty of seven counts of misconduct including bribery. The decision, whose motivations will not be released by the ethics committee for some weeks, was reached after two days of witness appearances, cross examination and deliberation by Damaseb's committee.

As expected Bin Hammam, who did not himself appear before the committee, reacted by dismissing the judgment as entirely unsound. "Mr Bin Hammam rejects the findings of the Fifa ethics committee hearing and maintains his innocence," said Eugene Gulland, Bin Hammam's lead counsel, who has successfully represented the kingdom of Qatar in previous litigations, in a statement.

"He will continue to fight his case through the legal routes that are open to him. The Fifa ethics committee has apparently based its decision upon so called 'circumstantial' evidence, which our case has clearly demonstrated was bogus and founded on lies told by a senior Fifa official."

In a separate inquiry following the complaints of seven Caribbean football associations, Chuck Blazer of the Concacaf federation was cleared of racial discrimination. He was, though, warned as to his future conduct after being found to have made untrue comments to officials at a Concacaf event in Zurich in May.

Bin Hammam's co-defendants, the Caribbean Football Union officials Jason Sylvester and Debbie Minguell, received one-year bans.

Gulland continued: "Fifa, either directly or through third parties, appears to have done the opposite with selective and continual leaking of documentation that has been part of these proceedings to the media in order to influence public opinion and create bias."

When the Observer asked Damaseb if his was a kangaroo court, as previously insinuated by Bin Hammam, he responded: "We took the exercise very seriously and listened to all the evidence put to us."

He also excused the leaking of several elements of the inquiry as an inevitable outcome. "The possibility for leaks was so vast because the information was disseminated to so many people."

When asked, Damaseb did not explain how many.

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ali8775 wrote:

theaguia wrote:blatter and platini ruining any credibility fifa and uefa had.
fifa really needs a new leader, a new face.

In 10 years : Wenger

ali8775 wrote:

theaguia wrote:blatter and platini ruining any credibility fifa and uefa had.
fifa really needs a new leader, a new face.

In 10 years : Wenger