Mohamed Bin Hammam was today banned for life from all football-related activity after being found guilty of bribery by FIFA’s ethics committee.
The Asian Football Confederation president and FIFA executive committee member was found guilty of charges that he attempted to bribe members of the Caribbean Football Union at a meeting on the FIFA presidential campaign trail in Trinidad in May.
After a two-day hearing which Bin Hammam did not attend, ethics committee deputy chairman Petrus Damaseb today confirmed the 62-year-old had been found guilty on all charges and given a lifetime ban from the sport.
In a statement to the press, the Namibian official said: "Bin Hammam is hereby banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life.
"I want to stress the decision taken is punishment which is in keeping with the declared policy of the executive committee to show zero tolerance towards unethical behaviour."
Bin Hammam’s legal team tonight released a statement on the Qatari’s behalf which read: "Mr Bin Hammam rejects the findings of the FIFA ethics committee hearing and maintains his innocence.
"He will continue to fight his case through the legal routes that are open to him.
"He has gone on record, and maintains, that the FIFA ethics committee was going to find against him whatever the validity of the case presented to them.
"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.
"We have strictly observed the legal rules regarding the confidentiality of these proceedings and not shared our evidence, which is compelling, with the media.
"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.
"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."
The ban stems from allegations made after a meeting for associations of the CFU organised by Bin Hammam and former CONCACAF president Jack Warner in Trinidad during the Qatari’s campaign to oust Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.
