Former FIFA executive committee member Vernon Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka said on Friday, that he will go to the Court for Arbitration in Sport to overthrow a lifetime ban on any soccer-related activity.
Fernando had appealed against an original eight-year ban imposed on him at the end of April for unethical behaviour. The chief investigator in the original case, Michael Garcia, also appealed, saying the punishment was too lenient.
A two-day hearing of the FIFA ethics committee adjudicatory chamber, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, reached a decision in favour of Garcia this week and the earlier ban was extended to a life ban instead.
“I am disappointed by the decision but I am not surprised,” said Fernando at his office in Colombo. “It is their own process that gave me eight years and now their own process is saying that I should be given a life ban.”
“I have sought the advice of my lawyers and I will be going to the court of arbitration in sports which is at least outside the FIFA and then I will hope that I will get justice there,” he added.
A source close to FIFA said, at the time of the original ban, that Garcia, head of the ethics committee’s investigative chamber, had been examining an alleged misuse of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) funds.
A FIFA statement said that Fernando had violated articles of the FIFA code of ethics including rules of conduct, conflict of interests, offering and accepting gifts, bribery and corruption.
Fernando was a close ally of former FIFA executive committee member and AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam.
Bin Hammam was banned from soccer for life by FIFA following his involvement in a 2011 bribery scandal when he was standing against FIFA President Sepp Blatter for the president’s post.
Bin Hammam pulled out of the election over a cash-for-votes scandal at a meeting in Port of Spain. Fernando accompanied Bin Hammam on his ill-fated trip to Trinidad which precipitated the Qatari’s downfall.
“I feel that due to my friendship with Mohamed Bin Hammam and my relationship with him they consider that they have now finished Hammam, so maybe they want to do the same with me,” He concluded.