LONDON, (Reuters) – President Sepp Blatter’s push to clean up FIFA flushed out another potentially corrupt official on Monday when executive committee member Vernon Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka was banned from any football activity for three months.
A source close to FIFA said the 63-year-old – a member of the executive since 2011 – was banned while Michael Garcia, the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee, examines an alleged misuse of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) funds.
Fernando was a close ally of former FIFA executive committee member and AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam, who was banned from football for life by FIFA following his involvement in the 2011 bribery scandal when he was standing against Blatter for president.
Bin Hammam was due to stand against Blatter in the election but pulled out after it was alleged he tried to bribe Caribbean delegates.
Fernando accompanied Bin Hammam on his ill-fated trip to Trinidad which precipitated the Qatari’s downfall.
However, his ban means he will not take part in the next FIFA executive committee meeting next week and cannot play any part in the political manoeuvring that is building ahead of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) presidential elections in Kuala Lumpur on May 2.
In its statement, FIFA said the decision to ban Fernando was taken “based on Article 83, Paragraph One of the FIFA Code of Ethics, in order to prevent interference with the establishment of the truth with respect to proceedings now in the adjudicatory chamber”.
