Fifa bans Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii from voting

London : Fifa’s executive committee members Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii have been banned from voting in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting ballots.

“For as long as I am in the ethics committee, we will have a zero tolerance policy for all violations of standards,” said Fifa ethics committee chairman Claudio Sulser, who announced the suspension after a three-day hearing.

Adamu was banned from football activity for three years and Temarii for one year.

The ethic committee’s ruling followed a British newspaper’s claim that Nigerian Adamu and Tahitian Temarii, who is the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) president, asked for payments in exchange for votes.
The ballot will proceed on Dec 2 with 22 voters, instead of 24, and nine candidates across the two events.

Following an investigation by the ethics committee, Adamu, who pleaded his innocence throughout, was fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,200; ?6,300) and Temarii 5,000 francs, while four other Fifa officials, all former executive committee members, were suspended.

Ismael Bhamjee of Botswana was handed a four-year ban, Amadou Diakite of Mali and Ahongalu Fusimalohi of Tonga three-year punishment and Tunisia’s Slim Aloulou a two-year suspension.

All four, who were fined 10,000 Swiss francs each, were found to have broken rules on general conduct and loyalty and of failing to report evidence of misconduct in relation to the case.

“We don’t want cheaters, we don’t want doping, we don’t want abuses to be accepted,” Sulser said.

England, Russia, Spain/Portugal, Netherlands/Belgium are bidders for 2018 and Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, United States are for 2022 World Cup.

Adamu and Temarii were secretly filmed by reporters from the Sunday Times, who posed as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies that wanted to bring the tournament to the US.

Adamu allegedly said he wanted $800,000 (?500,000) to build four artificial football pitches.

The Sunday Times footage appeared to show him asking for money to be paid directly for endorsing a US bid.

Temarii has been alleged to have asked for a payment, in his case to finance a sports academy, and he has been punished for breaching rules on loyalty and confidentiality.