LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Sport’s highest tribunal met on Wednesday to hear the appeal of former FIFA
presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam against his life ban from football for bribery.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing was due to last
two days although a decision is not expected for several weeks.
Bin Hammam was not among the officials who entered the
building for the hearing, a Reuters television cameraman at the scene said. Sources close to the hearing said the Qatari
former head of the Asian Football Confederation would not attend.
Instead, he would be represented by his team of
American and Swiss lawyers.
Bin Hammam challenged Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency last year.
He withdrew
his candidacy and was then provisionally suspended days before the June election over allegations that he had tried to buy
the votes of Caribbean officials by handing them $40,000 each in brown envelopes.
Blatter was subsequently re-elected
unopposed for a fourth term as FIFA president, while Bin Hammam was found guilty of breaking seven articles of FIFA’s ethics
code, including one on bribery.
He was banned for life and subsequently lost an appeal at FIFA.
