News 13 May 2015

FIFA bans Temarii for accepting money from bin Hammam

FIFA has banned Reynald Temarii, General Director of the Tahiti football association, for eight years after it found that Temarii had breached its Code of Ethics by accepting money from former FIFA Executive Committee Mohammed bin Hammam, which Temarii used to cover the costs of an appeal against a previous FIFA ban. ‘The adjudicatory chamber [of the FIFA Ethics Committee] has determined that Mr Temarii’s conduct violated FIFA Code of Ethics Articles 13 (General rules of conduct), 15 (Loyalty), 16 (Confidentiality), 19 (Conflicts of interest) and 20 (Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) by accepting an amount of €305,640 from Mr Mohamed bin Hammam, who was then a member of the FIFA Executive Committee and the AFC [Asian Football Confederation] President, to cover the costs of his legal expenses in the context of an appeal against the previous ban imposed by the FIFA Ethics Committee on 17 November 2010’, read a 13 May FIFA statement. ‘Mr Temarii received the money in January 2011 following a meeting with Mr Bin Hammam in November 2010 in Kuala Lumpur’. The ban runs from 13 May 2015.

In 2010, during a Sunday Times investigation, allegations were made that Temarii and fellow Executive Committee member Amos Adamu (Nigeria) had accepted money in in exchange for their vote for the host country of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The two Executive Committee members were banned along with four other officials – Slim Aloulou (Tunisia), Amadou Diakité (Mali), Ahongalu Fusimalohi (Oceania Football Confederation) and Ismael Bhamjee (Botswana) – on 17 November 2010. This meant that neither Temarii nor Adamu could take part in the Executive Committee’s December 2010 vote to award the tournaments to Russia (pictured) and Qatar.

In early February 2011, the FIFA Appeal Committee upheld the bans against Temarii and Adamu, but reduced the bans handed out to Aloulou, Diakité and Fusimalohi. Bhamjee chose not to appeal his sanction.

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