Bin Hammam Begins Appeal Process

Mohamed Bin Hammam, the former Asian football president recently given a
lifetime ban by FIFA, has launched an appeal – but added that he did not
expect to win his case.

The 62 year-old was given the ban from football by the sport’s world governing body last month after being found guilty of bribing Caribbean officials during his campaign to defeat FIFA president Sepp Blatter at the elections earlier this year.

In a statement on his personal blog, the Qatari said: ‘I have submitted my case to the FIFA Appeals Committee, not hoping for justice to prevail but as a protocol to enable me to obtain access to the Court of Arbitration of Sport’.

‘After all, the panel from the Appeals Committee is decided by my opponent and in this case, as previously, the judge is the rival. Therefore, I should not exaggerate hope for a fair decision’.

‘Going through the motivated decisions, we found them to be deeply flawed and raises grave doubts on whether any decision-making body of FIFA has sufficient independence to ensure a fair decision based solely on evidences and applicable laws’.
 
‘Based on our experiences, we expect the appeal process and decision to take approximately two months, not because this time is necessarily needed but more due to FIFA’s tactical games and abuse of power, as evident throughout this case’.