FIFA Bans Adamu, Temarii from World Cup Vote; Qatar/Spain-Portugal Cleared

(ATR) FIFA's ethics committee Thursday banned Ex-co members Amos Adamu andReynald Temarii from football-related activities for three years and oneyear respectively after an investigation into the cash-for-votesscandal.

It means they will not be involved in the Dec. 2 vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The decision leaves just 22 Ex-co members to decide the tournament hosts and has forced the nine World Cup bid committees to rethink their lobbying strategy in the final two weeks of campaigning.

Qatar and Spain-Portugal were also cleared of voting collusion, FIFA's ethics committee chairman Claudio Sulser confirmed.

Four other FIFA officials were slapped with bans following the three-day meeting of the ethics committee.

"We must adhere to the rules. We are here to implement this code [FIFA's Code of Ethics]," Sulser said before reading out the sanctions decided by the ethics commission at Thursday's news conference.

Sulser also aimed fire at the Sunday Times newspaper whose revelations led to the ethics inquiry, accusing its reporters of "twisting the truth".

He admitted the World Cup bid bribery allegations had hurt FIFA's reputation.

"The damage caused to FIFA is very great," he said.

FIFA provisionally suspended Nigerian Adamu and Tahitian Temarii from the executive committee last month, pending a full investigation into allegations of selling their votes for cash in the competition to host the 2018 World Cup.

Video footagepublished by the Sunday Times showed Adamu asking for $800,000 to fund pitches and Temarii demanding around $2.4 million to pay for an academy in Auckland.

Sulser said the ethics committee had studied several hours of video evidence supplied by the Sunday Times.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter did not attend Thursday's press conference but will discuss the decisions at an emergency meeting of the executive committee on Friday when members are expected to ratify the sanctions made.

Adamu has reportedly already said he will appeal the sanctions at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valckesaid the Confederation of African Football and the Oceania Football Confederation would have to nominate new members for their executive committees. Temarii was president of the OFC.

For more on the Ethics Committee's findings as well as their implications, visit World Football Insider.

Written by Mark Bisson.