Bin Hammam banned for Life

The man who dared challenge the authority of Sepp Blatter has paid the ultimate price. Mohamad Bin Hammam, former President of the Asian Football Confederation, has been banned for life from any role within the game.

The Qatari was instrumental in lobbying for the World Cup finals in 2022  to be awarded to the desert nation and was successful in that endeavour.

However in challenging Blatter for the FIFA presidency, he conducted his campaign in a manner unacceptable to FIFA.

He offered bribes, and was caught.

Bin Hammam is alleged and now presumably considered found guilty of offering bribes to members of the North and Central American Football Federation (CONCACAF) at a meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad in May.

Bin Hammam offered bribes of $40,000 in cash filled envelopes to voting delegates to cast their votes for him as opposed to Blatter in FIFA’s upcoming presidential election.

With his campaign fading fast and the accusations about to be investigated, he stepped out of the race. One recipient photographed the cash before handing it back.

USA delegate Chuck Blazer reported the allegations to FIFA and their ethics committee made the decision to ban Bin Hammam on Saturday after a two-day hearing.

FIFA ethics committee deputy chairman Petrus Damaseb said on Saturday that Bin Hammam could not be involved in:

“any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life.”

Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, was suspended along with Bin Hammam after an earlier report said that the evidence against the pair was  “comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming” but chose to retire rather than face investigation.

Damaseb’s earlier report confirmed there was proof that bribes had been paid to officials to secure  support for Bin Hammam’s FIFA presidential  campaign.

Two further officials from the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, were each banned from football-related activity for a year for their involvement in the bribery attempt.

Before the hearing, Bin Hammam was already suggesting the ‘jury’ was rigged and suggested he would appeal if found guilty.

‘Rest assured that justice will eventually prevail whether through the FIFA ethics committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport or if necessary, through other courts or legal proceedings in courts where we will be equal and no special privileges will be granted to either party,’ he wrote on his now infamous personal blog.

The ethics committee has now asked FIFA’s legal department to prepare cases against the leaders of the Caribbean Football Union who are suspected to have knowingly covered up the instances of Bin Hammam’s bribery attempts of their members.

Sceptics will argue between two distinct points of view.

Firstly, that Bin Hammam is being punished for the ultimate sin of challenging Sepp Blatter. Secondly that he bribed officials, was caught and is being rightly punished.

Of course, both could be true.

Follow the whole FIFA corruption story