ZURICH, (Reuters) – Former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam has lost his appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against his latest ban from football, soccer’s governing body said on Wednesday.
Bin Hammam had a lifetime ban for bribery overturned by CAS in July but was suspended again one week later by FIFA, this time for a provisional period of 90 days, after a fresh probe by its ethics committee was announced.
Bin Hammam had appealed in mid-October against that ban, which was extended for another 45 days last week. CAS could not immediately be reached for comment.
“The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected the request for provisional and conservatory measures lodged by Mohammed Bin Hammam against the decision pronounced by the FIFA Appeal Committee on 17 August 2012,” the FIFA statement said.
Bin Hammam was accused of trying to buy the presidential votes of Caribbean officials by handing them $40,000 each in brown envelopes at a meeting in Port of Spain one month before he was due to challenge Sepp Blatter in last year’s FIFA presidential election.
He withdrew his candidacy, was subsequently banned pending investigations and Blatter was re-elected unopposed for a fourth term as FIFA president.
Bin Hammam was then banned for life after being found guilty of breaking seven articles of FIFA’s ethics code, including one on bribery.
Proceedings against former CONCACAF president Jack Warner, also present at the meeting in Trinidad & Tobago, were dropped after he resigned from his post.
In its original ruling, CAS said the decision to annul Bin Hammam’s life ban was not “an affirmative finding of innocence” and that the case could be reopened with new evidence.
