A senior Qatari football official has won his appeal against FIFA’s ethics committee, which had banned him from the sport for one year.
Saoud Al-Mohannadi was cleared of allegations that he failed to cooperate with the ethics committee on an undisclosed investigation.
In a statement, FIFA said that there was not enough proof to meet “the comfortable satisfaction of the members of the Appeal Committee” that Al-Mohannadi did anything wrong.
It added:
“Therefore, the one-year ban imposed by the adjudicatory chamber on Mr Al-Mohannadi, which entered into force on 16 November 2016, and the fine of CHF 20,000 have been lifted.”
The punishment was imposed against the Qatar Football Association (QFA) Vice-Chairman in November 2016.
The exact nature of any impropriety remains unknown, but FIFA previously said that it was not related to the 2022 World Cup.
QFA had maintained that the charges were “without legitimate basis.”
Elections
Al-Mohannadi, who is also vice president of the Asian Football Confederation, was also prohibited from running for a seat in FIFA’s newly reformed executive committee.
Displeased by this, Asia’s top football officials refused to participate in a planned ExCo election in September.
According to Al-Mohannadi’s lawyers, a new election is set for May.
It remains unclear whether he will attempt to run for a seat again.
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