Bin Hammam Wins Appeal in FIFA Bribery Case

Lausanne, Switzerland, July 19 (QNA) - Qatari Former president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Mohamed bin Hammam's lifetime ban for bribery has been annulled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Bin Hammam was accused of attempting to buy votes ahead of last year's FIFA presidential election. FIFA later banned him from being involved "in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life". But the court said there was unsufficient evidence to support the ban. However the body stressed that its decision did not make any sort of "affirmative finding of innocent in relation to bin Hammam". "The panel is doing no more than concluding that the evidence is insufficient in that it does not permit the majority of the panel to reach the standard of comfortable satisfaction in relation to the matters on which the Appellant was charged," the report said. Bin Hammam, 62, along with former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, was suspended after a leaked report revealed four Caribbean Football Union (CFU) associations were either offered money, or saw the incident occur, during a meeting last May. It was alleged that cash-stuffed envelopes containing up to $40,000 were handed to the delegates during the meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Bin Hammam, a former head of the Asian Football Confederation, withdrew from the election, leaving Sepp Blatter to be re-elected unopposed. (QNA)