AFC extend Bin Hammam suspension
LONDON, Aug 19 — The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have extended the provisional suspension of their former president Mohamed bin Hammam (picture) by 20 days, the governing body said today, as investigations into allegations of financial wrongdoing continue.
The Qatari had been initially suspended for 30 days but chairman of the AFC Disciplinary Committee, Lim Kia Tong, extended that on Wednesday, a day before the ban was due to expire, a statement from the AFC said.
Bin Hammam is also facing a new investigation by soccer's world governing body FIFA, who handed the Qatari a lifetime ban for bribery only to see that ruling overturned by sport's highest court CAS last month.
Bin Hammam has denied both charges levelled against him and said on Tuesday he would shortly announce further steps to challenge “this clear abuse of power and process at the hand of FIFA”.
The 63-year-old Qatari was voted in for a third and final four year term as the head of Asian soccer in January last year before revealing a manifesto to challenge for the FIFA presidency against incumbent Sepp Blatter months later.
But Bin Hammam withdrew his candidacy and was then provisionally suspended, days before the June election over allegations that he had tried to buy the votes of Caribbean officials by handing them US$40,000 (RM120,000) each in brown envelopes at a meeting in Port of Spain.
Blatter was subsequently re-elected unopposed for a fourth term as FIFA president, while Bin Hammam was found guilty of breaking FIFA's ethics code, including one on bribery, and has been fighting the charges ever since. — Reuters
