Unhappy about the election of Sepp Blatter as FIFA’s president, Mohamed Bin Hammam was to appeal against the decision but now stands to appeal another; one that banned him for life.
Bin Hammam disproves decision: Appeals FIFA life Ban
62 years old, Bin Hammam got himself twisted in the cash-for-vote scandal that resulted in a life ban for the Asian Soccer chief. The decision was taking by the governing body of football last Saturday. He was going to earlier appeal the decision of appointing Blatter as the FIFA president but now stands to appeal the life ban on him.
Being in the committee since 1996, this hit the ex-executive although he claims that he was innocent. He said that this was a ploy by the senior executives to remove him from the committee.
The scandal involves Bin Hammam trying to induce the public to vote for him in exchange for cash. Preceding the presidential elections and being a billionaire, the accusations led to unseating Bin Hammam altogether and imposing a life ban. The investigations found Bin Hammam breaking 7 articles of the ethics code and the hearing ended with the announcement of the ban.
This isn’t the first time that the scandal has an official accused. In June, Jack Warner, who was a key player in the FIFA working group was also forced to resign and quit his position after being accused in misconduct. He had allegedly bribed the Caribbean officials with $40,000 each before the voting process.
There are other officials who may have been involved but until further investigations the final decisions will be pending.
Bin Hammam’s lawyers and supporters say that he will file an appeal and will continue to fight until he receives full justice to his case and remove the life ban. They say that they have not yet presented their side of the arguments but due to the leaking of information and documents, the media is creating a bias amongst the public. All accusations, according to Bin Hammam’s representative, are bogus.
The FIFA president Sepp Blatter was not present at the hearing when the life ban decision was taken. He was at the finals of the Copa America between Uruguay and Paraguay. However, upon his election as a president, he promised that there would be no tolerance to corruption and necessary actions will be taken if such an issue occurred.
Looks like Sepp Blatter need not worry about an appeal against his election as Bin Hammam will be busy in appealing a decision to end his life ban first.
Tags: Bin Hammam, FIFA, Football, Mohamed Bin Hammam, President, Sepp Blatter
