By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
May 1 – The timing could hardly be worse. On the eve of the vote to clean up its act, Asian football has been rocked by yet another embarrassing scandal after Sri Lanka’s Vernon Manilal Fernando, one of the continent’s most powerful administrators, was kicked out of FIFA for eight years over unspecified unethical wrongdoing.
Fernando, a prominent member of the FIFA executive committee, had already been suspended for 90 days as part of an ongoing investigation by corruption busters. But the decision to extend the ban has plunged the Asian Football Confederation into expected turmoil.
The AFC is due to elect both a new President and FIFA executive committee member on Thursday, but now they will suddenly have to find a second executive committee member though this will not take place in advance of FIFA’s annual congress in Mauritius on May 30 and 31.
It is understood Fernando’s ban is linked with alleged misuse of AFC funds, which ultimately led to the life ban of former AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam, one of his closest allies.
A FIFA statement said: “The adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has decided to ban FIFA Executive Committee member Vernon Manilal Fernando from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for a period of eight years after he was found guilty of several breaches of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
“The decision was reached following two days of hearings held on 29 and 30 April at FIFA’s headquarters inZurich.”
On paper, it would appear that Fernando’s ban spells bad news for Worawi Makudi of Thailand, one of the four candidates bidding to replace bin Hammam as AFC president at the vote in Kuala Lumpur.
Fernando and Makudi are close colleagues and the pair of them accompanied bin Hammam on that ultimately self-destructive May 2011 trip to Trinidad when Caribbean members received cash ahead of the FIFA Presidential election. Bin Hammam withdrew his bid to replace Sepp Blatter when the cash-for-votes scandal came out.
It is no secret that Fernando wielded huge influence in south-east Asia. So as well as harming the prospects of Makudi at Thursday’s election, his ban could seriously enhance the prospects of Sheikh Salman of Bahrain, the frontrunner to win the AFC Presidential race. Three years ago, Salman lost out to bin Hammam by two votes for a FIFA executive committee place and his supporters will doubtless point to Fernando’s wrongdoing as another example of a corrupt past regime.
At the very least Fernando’s ban will cast a dark shadow over the entire process, adding another layer of intrigue with his own position now up for grabs.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734832295labto1734832295ofdlr1734832295owedi1734832295sni@w1734832295ahsra1734832295w.wer1734832295dna1734832295
