Bin Hammam retires from football & receives lifetime ban
The controversial Qatari had been in trouble with the governing body over the last couple of years, and has decided to end his career in football
Dec 17, 2012 4:24:00 PM
Mohammed Bin Hammam has retired from football, and has also been banned for life by Fifa, the sport's governing body has confirmed.
The Qatari ran for the Fifa presidency in 2011, but was embroiled in a corruption scandal and given his first suspension by the organisation.
The sanction was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July 2012, but the 63-year-old was kept out of the sport by a further ban from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for financial wrongdoing, and yet another ban from the the Zurich-based federation.
It had been reported earlier in December that a new investigation into Bin Hammam's alleged corruption during the presidential race would not be pursued due to a lack of evidence.
But he has now chosen to end his career in the game, while at the same time being banned for life.
"Mr Bin Hammam, Fifa Executive Committee member and AFC president, has resigned from all his positions in football with immediate effect and will never be active in organised football again," a statement read.
"This results from a resignation letter of Mr Bin Hammam addressed to Fifa and AFC dated on 15 December 2012.
"In view of the fact that under the new Fifa Code of Ethics, the Fifa Ethics Committee remains competent to render a decision even if a person resigns, the Adjudicatory Chamber decided to ban Bin Hammam from all football-related activity for life.
"This life ban is based on the final report of Michael J. Garcia, chairman of the Investigatory Chamber of the Fifa Ethics Committee.
"That report showed repeated violations of Article 19 (Conflict of Interest) of the Fifa Code of Ethics, edition 2012, of Bin Hammam during his terms as AFC President and as member of the Fifa Executive Committee in the years 2008 to 2011, which justified a life-long ban from all football-related activity."
Bin Hammam was president of the AFC between 2002 and 2011, and worked alongside current president Sepp Blatter in several of the Swiss' election campaigns.
After deciding to stand against Blatter, he was alleged to have offered bribes to Caribbean football officials, including former Fifa vice-president and head of Concacaf, Jack Warner.
Warner also resigned in the face of ethics committee investigations, which meant that all procedures against him were dropped and the presumption of innocence was maintained.
