Former FIFA executive committee member Amos Adamu’s three-year ban from football has expired. He was banned for seeking money in return for voting on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights. The incident was filmed by undercover reporters where it was reported that he asked for $800,000 and was not allowed to take part in the 2010 votes.
Adamu, who is free to work in football again after the ban ended on Sunday, said: “I can only thank God it is over. I hold no grudge against anyone.” The bribery scandal three years ago implicated Adamu and five other officials in corrupt behaviour and plunged Fifa into turmoil weeks before the votes which saw Russia chosen to host the 2018 World Cup and Qatar selected as the host for the 2022 event. Adamu was filmed in a sting by a British newspaper, saying he wanted the money paid to him personally so he could finance football fields in Nigeria.
He was banned for three years by Fifa and failed in two appeals against his sanction. When the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected his second appeal and upheld his ban in 2012, a three-member panel at sport’s highest legal authority said his punishment was “even relatively mild given the seriousness of the offence”.
