Former Fifa presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam's lifetime ban for bribery has been annulled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) on Thursday. Bin Hammam was accused of attempting to buy votes ahead of last year's Fifa presidential election.
Fifa later banned him from involvement 'in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life.
Hammam who appealled the decision got a relief from Cas when the body ruled that 'there was insufficient evidence to support the ban'.
The verdict of Cas said: 'The panel is doing no more than concluding that the evidence is insufficient in that it does not permit the majority of the panel to reach the standard of comfortable satisfaction in relation to the matters on which the appellant was charged.
'This conclusion should not be taken to diminish the significance of its finding that it is more likely than not that Mr Bin Hammam was the source of the monies that were brought into Trinidad and Tobago and eventually distributed at the meeting by Mr Warner.
'In this way, his conduct, in collaboration with and most likely induced by Mr Warner, may not have complied with the highest ethical standards that should govern the world of football and other sports.
'The panel therefore wishes to make clear that in applying the law, as it is required to do under the Cas Code, it is not making any sort of affirmative finding of innocence in relation to Mr Bin Hammam.
'It is a situation of 'case not proven', coupled with concern on the part of the panel that the Fifa investigation was not complete or comprehensive enough to fill the gaps in the record.'
Cas said it would be possible to re-open the case with Fifa's ethics committee if new evidence was presented.
July 19, 2012.
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