Mohamed bin Hammam, former presidential candidate for the Zurich-based football world governing body, has appealed against his lifetime ban for election bribery.
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Explaining the appeal, bin Hammam wrote on his blog on Thursday that his suspension “was a political decision and an absolute abuse of power to deprive me of my right to contest for the Fifa presidency”.
He said he did not expect the Fifa Appeals Committee to overturn his ban but had to go through that body before taking his case to the Court of Arbitration of Sport.
Fifa imposed the life ban on bin Hammam in July after finding him guilty of buying votes in his campaign to unseat Swiss Sepp Blatter as head of the world governing body. That came just months after he helped secure 2022 World Cup hosting rights for his home country Qatar.
Bin Hammam called Fifa’s ruling “deeply flawed” and doubted whether Fifa’s Appeals Committee was sufficiently independent to ensure a fair decision.
He is also the suspended Asian Football Confederation president, and has managed so far to stave off a new election for the post until May. The confederation agreed to his request to wait for the outcome of his appeals.
He expected the appeal process to take about two months.
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Fifa gives life ban to bin Hammam
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The world football governing body’s ethics committee announced the decision on Saturday evening. Bin Hammam had been accused of trying to buy votes during his challenge to the current Fifa president, the Swiss Sepp Blatter. The Qatari later withdrew from the election, allowing Blatter to be re-elected without opposition. Saturday’s verdict “was in keeping with…
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Blatter received 186 out of a possible 208 votes at Fifa’s Congress in Zurich on Wednesday. The election and last year’s process of appointing the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts have been mired in controversy. Fifa’s image was further dented when Blatter’s only challenger for president, Mohamed bin Hammam, was forced to pull out…
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