Fresh Two-year FIFA Ban Looms for Adamu

Duro Ikhazuagbe

Three years after he completed serving a three-year ban for ethical violation former CAF and FIFA Executive Committees member, Dr Amos Adamu, is in fresh trouble that may earn him another two-year ban from all football related activities.

Yesterday, the report of the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee of FIFA chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, recommended a two-year ban for the former director general of the National Sports Commission.

In November 2013, Adamu was allegedly to have agreed to receive £500,000 in order to influence the voting procedure with his vote for the 2018 FIFA World Cup bid. The sting operation was carried out by UK-based Sunday Times.

However, the report of the fresh matter before FIFA is the outcome of the investigations opened on March 9, 2015, two years after Adamu finished serving his three-year ban for that sting operation.

According to FIFA, the investigations against Adamu conducted by Dr Cornel Borbély, chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, were opened on March 9 2015 and the final report was passed to the adjudicatory chamber on December 2, 2016.

“In the final report, the investigatory chamber recommends a sanction of a two-year ban from all football-related activities (administrative, sports and any other) and a fine of 20,000 Swiss Franc for violations of arts 13, 15 and 19 of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE).

“The adjudicatory chamber under its Chairman Hans-Joachim Eckert has studied the report carefully and decided to institute formal adjudicatory proceedings against Mr Adamu.

“In the course of the proceedings, the party (Adamu) will be invited to submit his position including any evidence with regard to the final report of the investigatory chamber (art. 70 par. 2 of the FCE), and may request a hearing (art. 74 par. 2 of the FCE),” stressed the statement.

However for fair hearing, FIFA declined to further details of the matter as the former Nigerian sports administrator is deemed innocent until final verdict of the case.

“For reasons linked to privacy rights and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the adjudicatory chamber will not publish further details at the present time,” concludes the statement.

Adamu was filmed in the Sunday Times sting in 2010 asking undercover reporters posing as bidders for $800,000 to influence his World Cup hosting vote, saying he wanted the money paid to him personally so he could finance soccer fields in Nigeria.

He was suspended and not allowed to take part in the December 2010 votes, then banned for three years by FIFA. He failed in two appeals against his sanction. Adamu is not the only football administrator to face FIFA’s sanctions.
Several others including former President Sepp Blatter and former UEFA chief, Mitchel Platini, are currently serving several years sanctions from all football related activities.