December 18 – Seedy by name, seedy by nature? FIFA ethics judges have banned former Gambia Football Federation chief Seedy Kinteh for four years for taking cash gifts from one-time FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam.
FIFA says its ethics committee found Kinteh guilty on charges of bribery and corruption, and accepting gifts. He was also fined CHF200,000 ($202,000).
Kinteh was named in a 2014 investigation report by FIFA’s then-ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia for taking payments totalling $69,396 from Bin Hammam from February 2010 to April 2011 when Qatar’s former Asian football confederation boss was bidding to unseat Sepp Blatter.
Kinteh has not played a part in Gambian football since 2012 when he resigned from his post. Kinteh maintains that the money has all been accounted for and that it had been audited and cleared by FIFA as going into Gambian football.
Bin Hammam was ultimately suspended in 2011 just days before the election was to take place after being implicated in bribing Caribbean voters.
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