Bin Hammam launches appeal

Former FIFA executive Mohamed Bin Hammam has called the decision to ban him for life “deeply flawed” but believes trying to clear his name may prove difficult in the face of “tactical games” from the governing body as he launched his formal appeal.

The Asian Football Confederation president was last month found guilty of charges that he attempted to bribe members of the Caribbean Football Union at a meeting on the FIFA presidential campaign trail in Trinidad in May.

The 62-year-old was given a lifetime ban from the sport but, after vowing to try and clear his name, he is now looking to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

Last week he received FIFA‘s reasoning for his suspension and, after analysing it, he has today claimed in a statement released via his official website, that the governing body‘s “abuse of power” could hold up his plans to appeal.

Bin Hammam‘s ban stems from allegations made after a meeting for associations of the CFU organised by Bin Hammam and former CONCACAF president Jack Warner in Trinidad during the Qatari’s campaign to oust Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.

Several members of the CFU claim they were offered thousands of dollars in cash for “development projects” at the meeting, with CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester alleged to have handed over the money.

Minguell and Sylvester were also both found guilty of wrongdoing at the hearing in Zurich and received one-year bans from all football activity, backdated to May 29 this year when their provisional suspensions began.

Former FIFA vice-president Warner, who was charged along with Bin Hammam, did not face the ethics committee after FIFA dropped the investigation into him following his resignation from all football activities on June 20.

Damaseb said Warner’s resignation took him out of FIFA’s jurisdiction and therefore he was presumed innocent.

Bin Hammam has been suspended from all football activity since May 29 after the allegations arose just a few days before the presidential election.

The investigation was widened to include Blatter after Bin Hammam claimed he knew about the alleged payments, but the president was cleared of any wrongdoing at the same hearing that saw Bin Hammam suspended.

Three days later, Blatter was re-elected unopposed as president after a campaign led by the Football Association to have the vote delayed proved unsuccessful.