ZURICH: Two FIFA executive committee members were banned and fined Thursday, one for bribery, over allegations they had offered to sell their votes in the contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Nigerian Amos Adamu was banned from all-soccer related activities for three years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,130) for breaches of five articles of FIFA's ethics code including one on bribery. Reynald Temarii of Tahiti, President of the Oceania Football Confederation, was banned for one year and fined 5,000 Swiss francs for breaching articles on general conduct and loyalty. Four other FIFA officials were banned and fined, including Slim Aloulou, chairman of the committee that settles disputes between clubs, players and coaches, and the previously disgraced Ismael Bhamjee. In 2006, Botswana's Bhamjee was sent home from the World Cup in Germany and subsequently quit the executive committee for selling match tickets at three times their face value. A further claim by British newspaper The Sunday Times that some bidding countries were guilty of collusion before the Dec. 2 vote in Zurich was dismissed by the ethics committee. The decision means only 22 executive committee members, instead of the expected 24, will vote when FIFA chooses the hosts for the two tournaments. “For as long as I am in the ethics committee, we will have a zero tolerance policy for all violations of standards,” said its chairman Claudio Sulser after a three-day hearing. “We don't want cheaters, we don't want doping, we don't want abuses to be accepted,” added Sulser, a former Switzerland international. He added: “The damage caused to FIFA's image is very great. When one talks of FIFA, there is generally a negative attitude out there, talk of corruption.” Adamu said he would appeal. “I am profoundly disappointed with the ethics committee's findings and had honestly believed I would be exonerated of any charges by now,” he said in a statement released by his lawyer and reported by the BBC. “I am innocent of all the charges levelled against me by the Ethics Committee and I completely refute the decision they have made.” The case has cast a shadow over the race to host the two World Cup tournaments. Russia and England are bidding to host the 2018 World Cup along with joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands. Japan, South Korea, Australia, United States and Qatar are candidates for 2022. FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke confirmed the vote would go ahead with two executive committee members short and said there was almost no chance of changing the controversial decision to choose the two hosts in the same vote. “Yes, there will be only 22 members for the 2018 and 2022 votes,” he said. “I definitely think, as the FIFA president (Sepp Blatter) said, the game has started and you don't change the rules after the game has started. “It's 99 percent certain the executive committee will not spilt the 2018 and 2022 decisions, as was decided from day one.” Tunisia's Aloulou – the chairman of FIFA's dispute resolution chamber and a member of the players' status committee – was banned for two years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs. Ahongalu Fusimalohi, general secretary of the Tonga FA, and Amadou Diakite from Mali, a member of the FIFA referees' committee, were banned for three years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs each. Bhamjee, an honorary member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), was banned for four years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs.
