Former Football Association of Thailand (FAT) president Worawi Makudi will ask Fifa to lift the ban on him after a court found he was not guilty of forgery, his lawyer Narinpong Jinapak said yesterday.
Fifa last year banned Worawi from football activities for five years for forgery and falsification of documents ahead of the 2013 FAT presidential election which he won.
The order came after the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court handed Worawi a suspended 16-month jail sentence in 2015 for wrongfully changing the election rules ahead of the 2013 polls.
The case was filed by Pattaya FC which backed Virach Chanpanit, who lost to Worawi in the election.
Worawi then brought the case to the Court of Appeal which ruled on Thursday that the 64-year-old was not guilty as he acted according to the Local Administration Department which oversees all association in Thailand.
The court said Worawi did not have the intention to commit wrongdoings.
Pattaya have said they would not take the case to the Supreme Court.
"It has been proven that Worawi Makudi, the former president of the Football Association of Thailand, is not guilty as charged. He is clean," declared Narinpong at a press conference yesterday.
"He told me after learning of the court ruling that he is very happy."
The lawyer said he would ask Fifa to lift the ban and if the world football's governing body refuses to act he would bring the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Worawi had been a Fifa executive committee member for 18 years before losing his seat in May 2015 and was also fined 10,000 Swiss francs (approximately 350,000 baht) by the adjudicatory chamber of Fifa's ethics committee.
Asked if Worawi would make a comeback to football, Narinpong said: "He needs time to heal his 'mental wounds' before making a decision."
However, the lawyer quoted Worawi as saying that he may not return to football as long as the current FAT administration works well.
"He wants to support good people. If they do bad, then people will call for another person to run the association when the next election comes," he said.
Somyot Poompunmuang won last year's FAT presidential election for a four-year term in office.
Asked about the Revenue Department orders to the FAT to pay 131 million baht in back taxes incurred while Worawi was FAT president, Narinpong said: "It is the duty of the current FAT president to shoulder the responsibility."
He said the Revenue Department asked the FAT, and not Worawi, to pay the taxes.