14 May 2015

Oceania football official banned

12:23 pm on 14 May 2015

The former FIFA executive committee member Reynald Temarii has been banned for eight years for accepting more than $450,000 from disgraced former Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam.

General Director of the Tahiti Football Federation and former Oceania Football President Reynald Temarii.

General Director of the Tahiti Football Federation and former Oceania Football President Reynald Temarii. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Temarii, who was banned from taking part in the vote to choose the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts, was found to have violated several FIFA ethics codes.

Fifa's ethics committee said in a statement "The adjudicatory chamber has determined that Mr Temarii's conduct violated FIFA code of ethics articles on... general rules of conduct, loyalty, confidentiality, conflicts of interest and offering and accepting gifts."

Temarii, the general director of Tahiti's FA, was suspended from all football activity for one year in 2010 following an investigation into allegations he offered to sell his vote in the World Cup hosting contest to undercover newspaper reporters.

Nigeria's Amos Adamu, a fellow FIFA executive committee member, was banned for three years in the same case.

FIFA's ethics committee said Temarii then accepted "an amount of 305,640 euros from Mr Mohamed bin Hammam, who was then a member of the FIFA Executive Committee and the AFC President, to cover the costs of his legal expenses in the context of an appeal."

"Temarii received the money in January 2011 following a meeting with Mr Bin Hammam in November 2010 in Kuala Lumpur," added the statement.

Temarii, who was also president of the Oceania Football Confederation at the time, lost his appeal.

Qatari Bin Hammam, another FIFA executive committee member, was initially banned by football's world governing body for bribery ahead of the 2011 FIFA presidential elections in which he was standing against incumbent Sepp Blatter.

Bin Hammam eventually overturned the verdict after a lengthy court process only to be suspended following a review of AFC accounts by FIFA who accused him of repeated violations of the ethics code during 2008-2011.

Meanwhile the Asian Football Confederation has suspended its general secretary Alex Soosay following allegations that he asked another official to hide some documents during a corruption probe.

The AFC released a brief statement saying the Malaysian had been suspended while they investigate the media claims relating to a case dating back three years.

Soosay has denied any allegations of wrongdoing and he said earlier this month he believed the case was closed.

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