ZURICH -- FIFA has banned former vice president Reynald Temarii for eight years for taking Qatari power-broker Mohamed bin Hammam's money to pay legal costs in a corruption case linked to the 2022 World Cup vote.
Temarii breached five sections of FIFA's ethics code when he accepted €305,640 ($343,000) from Bin Hammam in January 2011, FIFA said on Wednesday in announcing the ethics committee's verdict.
By agreeing to fund Temarii's legal fight against FIFA in the weeks before the World Cup vote, Bin Hammam ensured the Oceania Football Confederation could not take part. It was mandated to support Australia, one of Qatar's four rivals in the 2022 contest.
Temarii, then the OFC president, was appealing a one-year suspension by FIFA which barred him from voting in the 2018 and 2022 contests. Russia and Qatar, respectively, won the polls of FIFA's executive committee in December 2010.
FIFA had three weeks earlier judged the official from Tahiti guilty of breaking confidentiality and loyalty rules by discussing the World Cup votes with undercover reporters from The Sunday Times.
Had Temarii accepted his one-year ban without appeal, the OFC could have sent his then-deputy, David Chung of Papua New Guinea, to vote for Australia in his place.
The Sunday Times' reports in October 2010 alleged widespread corruption and vote-buying offers in the World Cup contests.
The resulting fallout which damaged the reputation of FIFA and the integrity of the votes persists today.
Temarii's FIFA colleague, Amos Adamu of Nigeria, was also barred from the World Cup vote and served a three-year ban from football. Four former FIFA executive committee officials also served bans in the case.
Temarii returned to the FIFA fold when he helped his native Tahiti organize the Beach Soccer World Cup in 2013.
