Bin Hammam to wait two months for verdict on appeal: CAS

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Bin Hammam

FIFA former presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam will have to wait for two more months to have a verdict on his life time ban appeal to the court of Arbitration for sport.

The former FIFA top wig was accused of bribery where it was alleged that Caribbean voters were offered 40,000 bribe last May to back the Qatari’s bid to contest against FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The court of Arbitration for sport simply gave the reason for the long wait as a non request from both Bin Hammam and FIFA lawyers for an urgent ruling.

Bin Hammam’s American lawyer, Eugene Gulland, read a prepared statement saying his client maintained his innocence.

Bin Hammam had “presented a strong case and he looks forward with great hope that the court will find … that Fifa has not proved its charges against him,” Gulland said. He declined to answer questions on why his client did not attend the hearing to face questions from Fifa’s lawyers.

Fifa’s legal team of the Swiss lawyer Antonio Rigozzi and Adam Lewis from England did not comment when leaving the court.

The Cort of Arbitration for Sport secretary general, Matthieu Reeb, said the parties appeared “satisfied” by the proceedings.

Reeb said 10 witnesses were cross-examined, but the court would not reveal their identities or details of the evidence and legal arguments.

Bin Hammam’s lawyers were expected to challenge whether some of Fifa’s evidence was admissible in court.

Officials from four Caribbean Football Union member countries turned whistle-blower to Fifa last May after Bin Hammam made a campaign visit in Trinidad.

Other Caribbean officials later gave evidence to Fifa, and returned the $40,000 (£25,000) cash payments, during an investigation conducted by an independent agency led by the former FBI director Louis Freeh.

Fifa’s ethics committee used the evidence to suspend Bin Hammam four days before 208 football nations were scheduled to vote in the presidential election in Zurich. He withdrew his candidacy, leaving Blatter unopposed to receive a fourth four-year term.

Bin Hammam, the Asian Football Confederation president and a member of Fifa’s executive committee since 1996, was banned from all football duties by the ethics court last July.

Fifa’s appeals committee upheld the sanction, allowing Bin Hammam to pursue his case at world sport’s highest court.

Gulland said the CAS hearing “was Mr Bin Hammam’s first chance to answer charges against him in front of a court that is not controlled by Fifa.

“Mr Bin Hammam has always insisted on his innocence, and he has always rejected the charges of vote-buying and bribery that Fifa brought against him.”

It would be recalled that an earlier appeal by Nigeria’s Amos Adamu was turned down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in February this year after he was also accused of bribery and misconducts.