Bin Hammam appeal set for next Thursday

Mohamed Bin Hammam’s appeal against his life ban for bribery will be heard next week, FIFA have confirmed.

FIFA’s appeals committee will have a hearing on Thursday, September 15 to rule on Bin Hammam’s appeal against the ban handed down by the ethics committee in July.

The hearing could be completed on the day although it could spill over into September 16.

Bin Hammam was banned after the ethics committee ruled he was responsible for cash gifts totalling around 1million US dollars to officials from associations belonging to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) at a meeting in Trinidad on May 10.

FIFA have charged 16 of those officials with rule breaches in connection with that meeting.

If Bin Hammam’s appeal fails, the Qatari can then go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, and possibly after that to the Swiss federal court.

In a letter to the ethics panel chairman Petrus Damaseb sent this week Bin Hammam insisted he had not bribed anyone and claimed FIFA would never have dared to take action against him if he were European.

The letter, published by Bin Hammam, states: “I have never tried to bribe people and all the attendees of that CFU meeting are sure of this fact and you, yourself, heard this from all the witnesses that [were] brought to testify against me.”