By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – Asian football has been rocked by yet another scandal, with the fallout from former AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam’s disgraced legacy snaring another culprit.
One of the region’s most senior figures, Mongolian FA president Ganbold Buyannemekh (pictured), has been banned for five years by FIFA for “soliciting and accepting payments” linked to one of the most damaging corruption scandals to hit the governing body.
FIFA’s ethics committee found that Buyannemekh, a former member of the AFC’s executive committee, received money in 2009 linked to bin Hammam’s election to the FIFA executive committee – when he narrowly beat current AFC chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa – and then linked to the FIFA presidential election two years later.
The ban comes at an awkward time for the AFC hierarchy ahead of fresh elections next year and amid constant assurances that the region is cleaning up its act off the field.
“The adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA ethics committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has decided to ban the president of the Mongolian Football Federation, Ganbold Buyannemekh, from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for a period of five years,” a FIFA statement said.
“Mr Buyannemekh solicited and accepted payments [from Mr Mohamed bin Hammam] in the context of the elections for the FIFA executive committee at the AFC Congress in 2009 as well as the FIFA presidential election in 2011.”
Bin Hammam, former head of the Asian Football Confederation, withdrew his bid to challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency in 2011 just days before the election to fight bribery allegations regarding payments to Caribbean members.
The Qatari, who has always denied wrongdoing, subsequently had a lifetime ban lifted on appeal but resigned from all football-related posts in 2012 and received a second lifetime ban, this time for “conflicts of interest” linked to misuse of AFC funds.
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