FIFA yesterday suspended two members of its executive committee for one and three years respectively, after its probe into misdealings in the bidding for soccer’s 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Claudio Sulser, president of FIFA’s ethics committee, said Nigeria’s Amos Adamu was banned for three years and Oceanian soccer chief Reynald Temarii for one year.
Both men were fined and four other soccer officials were also sanctioned.
“For Reynald Temarii, FIFA vice president, he was prohibited from exercising any activity relative to football for one year,” and fined SF$5,000 (US$5,063), Sulser told journalists.
“Amos Adamu ... was prohibited from footballing activities for three years,” he added.
FIFA has been trying to salvage the credibility of the selection process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups after a controversial sting by undercover reporters for a British newspaper raised claims of vote-buying.
Adamou and Temarii had been suspended temporarily last month pending the full investigation by the ethics committee this week, which also covered allegations of collusion between bidders, notably Qatar and Spain-Portugal.
Sulser said yesterday there was no evidence to back allegations that Qatar and Spain-Portugal colluded.
England, Russia and joint bids by Spain-Portugal and the Netherlands-Belgium are in the running to host the 2018 World Cup, while Australia, the US, Japan, Qatar and South Korea are bidding for 2022.
The events of the past month have revived uncomfortable memories of old influence-peddling scandals over the past decade and late 1990s that shook world soccer’s decision-making body.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has maintained a ballot by the remaining members of the executive committee, including some from bidding nations, to choose the hosts on Dec. 2, after a high-powered final pitch by the bidders in Zurich.
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