ZURICH (Reuters) – Two FIFA executive committee members have formally appealed against suspensions imposed on them last year over allegations they offered to sell their votes in the contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. “Both have appealed formally and the appeals committee will look at it at a date to be confirmed,” a FIFA spokesman said.
FIFA’s 24-man executive committee was two men short when it chose Russia to host the 2018 World Cup in December and Qatar for 2022 following the bans on Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii.
Adamu of Nigeria was banned from all soccer-related activities for three years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($9,625) for breaches of five articles of FIFA’s ethics code including one on bribery.
Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii, president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), was found guilty by FIFA’s ethics committee in November of breaching ethics guidelines, banned for one year and fined 5,000 Swiss francs. The decisions, following allegations by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper that the pair offered to sell their votes to undercover reporters posing as lobbyists for an American consortium, were taken by FIFA’s ethics committee in November.
Four other officials were also banned and fined in an unprecedented move by soccer’s world governing body.
The case cast a cloud over the bidding process, which was further confused by the decision to choose the hosts of two World Cup tournaments at the same time.
The OFC is due to meet in American Samoa on Saturday to elect Temarii’s replacement. FIFA’s appeals committee is headed by Bermuda’s Larry Mussenden. Temarii and Adamu have a further right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
