Fifa recommends four-year ban for Worawi

Fifa recommends four-year ban for Worawi

Fifa ethics investigators have recommended banning former Football Association of Thailand (FAT) chief Worawi Makudi from the sport for at least four years for ethics violations.

The chairman of the investigatory chamber of the independent ethics committee, Swiss lawyer Cornel Borbely, has also recommended Mr Worawi be fined 25,000 Swiss francs (890,000 baht), Geneva-based Fifa said in a news release on Friday.

The decision is subject to final approval by the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee, which is chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert.

"Until a formal decision is taken by the adjudicatory chamber, Mr Worawi is presumed innocent," it said.

The investigatory chamber recommended the sanctions for alleged violation of the general rules of conduct set out in the Fifa Code of Ethics, forgery and falsification.

The investigation focused mainly on alterations that Mr Worawi made to the FAT statutes without informing the members of the FAT Congress or seeking their approval.

Mr Worawi has been under a Fifa-imposed suspension for the past several months, which made him ineligible to seek another term as FAT president. Former national police chief Somyot Poompunmuang was elected to the position on Feb 15.

Mr Worawi was a member of the tainted former Fifa executive committee for 18 years until Asian Football Confederation members voted him out in April last year.

While serving as a Fifa executive member, Mr Worawi cleared his name of allegations that he used Fifa funds earmarked for development of the sport to build a national football development centre on his own land. He also fought off claims that he had asked for the TV rights of a match from England in exchange for his vote for that country to host the 2018 World Cup.

Mr Worawi reportedly voted for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup and British media said there might have been a link between his vote and Thailand's PTT Plc securing a gas deal with a Qatari company.

However, PTT insisted the deal had nothing to do with the World Cup vote as it was done on a government-to-government basis.

When Fifa first suspended Mr Worawi last October, it removed the entire FAT executive board and appointed a "normalisation committee" chaired by Adm Surawut Maharom to oversee the presidential election.

Mr Worawi and former FAT secretary-general Ong-art Kosinkha were also found guilty in a Thai court in July last year of forgery in his 2013 re-election. He was given a suspended 16-month jail term and is appealing against the ruling.

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