By Andrew Warshaw
March 13 – Two more former FIFA Executive Committee members have, as expected, lost their appeals after being banned for two years on corruption charges during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
FIFA said in a statement it was “satisfied” by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) verdicts against Amadou Diakite and Ahongalu Fusimalohi (pictured), adding the decision, allied to a similar one concerning Amos Adamu of Nigeria last month, “underlines once more FIFA’s zero tolerance” for breaches of its ethics code.
Mali’s Diakite was removed from FIFA’s Referees Committee after the scandal broke in November 2010, while Fusimalohi was sacked as chief executive of Tonga’s national football federation.
At the time Adamu, who was been banned for three years, was the most high-profile of the cases that went to CAS.
Tunisia’s Slim Aloulou, Ismail Bhamjee of Botswana and Reynald Temarii (pictured) of Tahiti were all also sanctioned for various misdemeanours in the biggest collective purge of senior executives in FIFA’s history.
Since then of course, an even bigger name, former Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam, was banned for life for his role in the infamous Trinidad and Tobago cash-for-votes scandal – pending a final appeal hearing to be heard by CAS next month – while ex-FIFA vice-president Jack Warner resigned from all footballing activities.
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