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FIFA hands Bin Hammam life ban for bribery

The 62-year-old Qatari was found guilty by FIFA's Ethics Committee of bribery during a meeting with Caribbean officials in Port of Spain, Trinidad in May, the committee's deputy chairman Petrus Damaseb told reporters.

Caribbean Football Union (CFU) officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester were each given one-year bans and Damaseb recommended a further investigation be opened "into the conduct of others who attended the meeting."

"He maintains his innocence," Eugene Gulland told reporters. "He will continue to fight his case through the legal routes that are open to him.

"He has gone on record and maintains FIFA was going to find against him whatever the validity of the case he presented to them.

"FIFA's Ethics Committee has apparently based its decision on so-called circumstantial evidence which our case has clearly demonstrated was bogus and founded on lies told by senior FIFA officials," added Gulland.

Bin Hammam, who has also been on FIFA's Executive Committee since 1996, withdrew his presidential candidacy on May 29 and Swiss Sepp Blatter was re-elected unopposed for a fourth term three days later.

Bin Hammam could now take his case to FIFA's own appeals committee and, if that fails, can then go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).