Amos Adamu loses bribe appeal

Nigeria’s former FIFA Executive member, Amos Adamu has lost his appeal against a three-year ban over World Cup bid bribes.

Adamu was sanctioned by the football’s world governing body after being accused of seeking bribes in the run-up to the decision on who should host the 2018 and 2022 world cups.

He took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which has now considered the sanction was not disproportionate.

CAS said in its ruling: “The CAS panel stressed that it was of crucial importance that top football officials should not only be honest but should evidently and undoubtedly be seen to be honest.

“With respect to the behaviour of Dr Adamu, the CAS panel was comfortably satisfied that he was far from actively and unambiguously refusing the improper offer set forth by the alleged lobbyists.

“In conclusion, the CAS arbitrators considered that the sanction imposed by FIFA was not disproportionate and was even relatively mild given the seriousness of the offence.”

Adamu was filmed by reporters from a British Newspaper, the Sunday times, who posed as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies that wanted to bring the world cup to the United States.

Adamu was found to have asked for 500,000 pounds to build four artificial football pitches – a breach of FIFA rules which led to his original suspension and a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs.